Position in chronology
TAD 24 etc. (cast copies)
About this tablet
A routine livestock receipt from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great animal-collection center that the Ur III kings ran near Nippur to process livestock for state and temple use. The official Ur-nigar takes delivery of 80 animals — sheep and young goats — from Abba-saga, one of the best-documented Drehem administrators, with sealed tablets from two other men serving as the paper trail. Dated to the second year of King Amar-Suen, it is one of thousands of such records that make this bureaucracy the most densely documented institution of the ancient world.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Receipt: 30 sheep and 11 young goats, covered by the sealed document of Dingir-abi, plus 39 young goats covered by the sealed document of Ur-saga — 80 animals in all. Ur-nigar received them from Abba-saga. Dated to the month of the Mekigal festival (the twelfth month), in the year King Amar-Suen destroyed the city of Urbilum — that is, his second regnal year, around 2045 BCE.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine30 sheep, 11 kids — sealed tablet of Dingir-abi; 40 less 1 (= 39) kids — sealed tablet of Ur-saga; from Abba-saga did Ur-nigar receive. Month: "Festival of Mekigal" (12th month). Year: "Amar-Suen the king destroyed Urbilum" (Amar-Suen year 2, ca. 2045 BCE).
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
3(u) udu 1(u) 1(disz) masz2 kiszib3 dingir-ra-bi2 4(u) la2 1(disz@t) masz2 kiszib3 ur-sa6-ga ki ab-ba-sa6-ga-ta ur-nigar szu ba-ti iti ezem-me-ki-gal2 mu amar-suen lugal-e ur-bi2-lum mu-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — TAD 24 etc. (cast copies). No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Amar-Suen y2 — Urbilum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: OIM A04663 & AUAM 73.1653 & Bod A 069 & Bod A 072 & ICP 0409 & Ist PD — & WML 51.63.153 & YMEC — (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey; Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK; Institut Catholique, Paris, France; Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA; Siegfried H. Horn Museum, Institute of Archaeology, Andrews University, Berrien Spri) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P131066). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.