Akkadica 135/1, 084-086 06

~2049 BCE·Ur III · Neo-Sumerian·P480070

About this tablet

This is a small Ur III bureaucratic receipt from the city of Umma, recording the death of a single ram from the flock of a man named Lu-Utu. Such 'dead animal' texts were routine paperwork in the huge state-run herding economy of the Ur III period (c. 2100–2000 BCE): when livestock died, an official had to certify the loss so it could be written off the books rather than blamed on the herder. The tablet is sealed and dated, and signed by the scribe Lu-kalla, son of a herdsman named Ur-e'e — a family evidently embedded in the palace's animal-management bureaucracy.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

One woolly ram belonging to Lu-Utu died and was recorded as a loss, with Lu-kalla's seal certifying the entry. The document is dated to the month of Pa'ue, in the year Huhnuri was destroyed. It was drawn up by the scribe Lu-kalla, son of Ur-e'e, who held the office of herdsman.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1 ram, with fleece (bar-gal2), died. From Lu-Utu. Under seal of Lu-kalla. Month: Pa'ue. Year: "Huhnuri was destroyed." Lu-kalla, scribe, son of Ur-e'e, the herdsman (šuš3).

Indicative reading — translated without a photograph. Generated from the transliteration alone, without examining the original. Read it as an accessible first taste, not as a verified catalogue entry.

Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.

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Transliteration

1(disz) udu-nita2 bar-gal2 ba-usz2
ki lu2-utu-ta
kiszib3 lu2-kal-la
iti pa4-u2-e
mu hu-uh2-nu-ri ba-hul
lu2-kal-la
dub-sar
dumu ur-e11-e szusz3

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Akkadica 135/1, 084-086 06. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: DMMA AA.TC.67 (Département des Monnaies, Médailles et Antiques, Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, France) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P480070). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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