Position in chronology
AAS 048
About this tablet
A small receipt from the provincial administration of Umma in southern Iraq, written around 2050 BCE, in Šulgi's 48th regnal year. Two very young calves, one female and one male and both still suckling, are handed over through a cowherd named Abbagina to a courier. The year is named after Šulgi's campaign against Harši and Kimaš in the eastern highlands, so even this routine note on two calves carries the record of a war. Thousands of such slips document the Ur III state's control of its livestock down to single animals.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Received: one female calf and one male calf, both still nursing, from the gu4-lah5 herd. Abbagina the cowherd handled the transfer, and a courier took charge of the animals. Dated to the year Harši and Kimaš were destroyed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 1. 1 suckling cow-calf, 2. 1 suckling bull-calf, 3. calves of the gu4-lah5 cattle; 4. via Abbagina, the cowherd; Reverse 5. the courier took (them) in charge. 6. Year: "Harši and Kimaš were destroyed."
Our translation engine — Opus 5.5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- amar gu4-lah5 — Literally 'calf, cattle-driver/leader-of-cattle'; gu4-lah5 is a compound occupational term for one who drives/leads cattle. The '#' in the transliteration signals the sign is partially damaged.
- kas4 i3-dab5 — 'The runner has taken charge / has received (it).' kas4 = runner/courier; i3-dab5 = he/she has taken/received. Standard Ur III administrative formula for transfer of responsibility.
- ha-ar-szi ki-masz — Harshi and Kimash: two cities/regions in the Zagros foothills conquered by Šulgi. This is the standard Ur III year name for Šulgi year 47. The Akkadian forms Ḫarši and Kimaš are attested in multiple year-name lists.
- ab2 ga / gu4 ga — 'Milk cow' and 'milk ox': ga = milk (Sumerian), used attributively to denote lactating/dairy animals. The distinction ab2 (cow) vs. gu4 (bull/ox) is standard zootechnical vocabulary.
- giri3 — Literally 'foot/via'; used as an administrative preposition meaning 'under the responsibility of' or 'via (a named intermediary).' Here it introduces the responsible official Abba-gina.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of AO 19724 (Louvre): The photograph shows a small multi-faced clay tablet displayed in an unfolded layout — obverse, reverse, and edges visible. The surface is moderately well-preserved with legible wedge impressions on the main faces. On the upper central face (obverse), approximately 4–5 horizontal lines of cuneiform are visible; individual signs are small but several clusters are recognizable. I can tentatively make out sign groups consistent with GA (milk), GU4 (ox/bull), and what appears to be a personal name sequence in line 3–4. The lower face (reverse) shows 1–2 further lines consistent with the date formula. The transliteration aligns reasonably well with what is visually discernible, though fine sign details on 'amar gu4-lah5' and 'kas4 i3-dab5' cannot be fully confirmed at this resolution. The date formula 'mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz ba-hul' is a well-known Ur III year name corresponding to Šulgi year 47 (the year Harshi and Kimash were destroyed), providing good contextual anchoring. Museum number AO 19724 and BDTNS/CDLI P100036 are consistent with an Umma administrative tablet of this type.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 2345 in / 839 out tokens
Transliteration
1(disz) ab2 ga 1(disz) gu4 ga amar gu4-lah5# giri3 ab-ba-gi-na unu3 kas4 i3-dab5 mu ha-ar-szi ki-masz ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAS 048. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P100036) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5-5 (2026-09-20/v8-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.