Position in chronology
TCL 02, 5557
About this tablet
A short legal record from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great livestock depot of the Ur III kings in southern Iraq, around 2040 BCE. It documents a silver debt between two men of the state bureaucracy — Ur-nigar and Abba-saga, the latter a name borne by the well-known chief administrator of the Drehem office — settled by an oath sworn in the king's name, with the debtor promising repayment on the day of the new moon in the month of Ki-siki-Ninazu. The lower part of the tablet is damaged, but it repeats the oath formula and names Ur-nigar, a livestock administrator, before closing with the seal legend of the scribe Ur-nigar, son of Zu-[...]. Even the most powerful officials of the Ur III cattle bureaucracy had to put their private debts in writing and swear to them by the king.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ur-nigar has a claim in silver against Abba-saga. Abba-saga swore to it by the king's name and stated, on the day of the new moon in the month of Ki-siki-Ninazu, that he would pay the money back. The transaction is dated to the year En-unugal was installed as high priestess/priest of Inanna. The rest of the tablet is broken: it names the man who took the royal oath, mentions Ur-nigar the livestock administrator, and refers again to a sum owed to a man whose name ends in -saga and to a repayment, but the details are lost. The seal at the end reads: Ur-nigar, scribe, son of Zu-[...].
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineUr-nigar (concerning) Abba-saga: because he held a claim of silver against him, he invokes(?) the oath by the name of the king twice(?). On the day of the new moon of the month Ki-siki-Ninazu he declared: "I will repay it." Year: En-unugal was installed (as en-priest) of Inanna. [The man(?)] who swore by the name of the king: [..., Ur]-nigar, the livestock administrator (šuš₃). [...] who held [...] to [...]-saga to [...] — to be repaid. (Seal inscription:) Ur-nigar, scribe, son of Zu-[...].
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
ur-nigar-ra ab-ba-sa6-ga-a ku3 in-da-tuku-szi mu lugal ab-tab-be2 u4-sakar iti ki-siki-nin-a-zu ga-ab-su bi2-in-du11 mu en-unu6-gal inanna ba-hun [lu2?] mu#? lugal pa3-da [x ur]-nigar# szusz3 [...] x-tuku-a [...]-sa6-ga-sze3 [...] x-sze3 su-su ur-nigar[] dub-sar# dumu zu?-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TCL 02, 5557. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y4 — En-unugal of Inanna installed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: AO 05557 (Louvre Museum, Paris, France) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P131646). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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