Position in chronology
AR RIM 05, 39 322
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative record from Umma (in modern southern Iraq), tracking labor assigned to a reed-cutting or reed-bundling job — recording the length of the work, the number of workmen and workdays, and the official who sealed the transaction. It closes with a standard bureaucratic dating formula referencing the year Simanum was destroyed (a known military campaign of King Šu-Sin, roughly 2029 BCE), and names the scribe Lu-Haya and his father Ur-e'e, a cattle official. Texts like this were part of the vast Ur III state's labor-accounting system, where every day of work by every crew was logged against a rotating service obligation called the bala.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The record opens mid-sentence, mentioning some reed bundles. It then logs a labor assignment attributed to a person called A-antureš: the job measured a third of a ninda in length, and one laborer worked it for one day. A following, partly illegible line adds a crew of twenty workmen. The source of the labor or materials is given as 'from Agu.' The tablet was sealed by an official named Lu-Haya, and the work was counted against the state's bala labor-rotation obligation. It is dated to the year after Simanum was destroyed — a standard Ur III year-name referring to a military event under King Šu-Sin. The document was written by the scribe Lu-Haya, son of Ur-e'e, who held the position of chief herdsman.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] reed-bundle(s). Labor(-assignment) of A-antureš: length: 1/3 ninda (rod). 1 workman for 1 day. [...] ... 20 workmen. [...] from Agu (received); sealed tablet of Lu-Haya; within the bala-duty. Year following: "Simanum was destroyed" (year name of Šu-Sin). Lu-Haya, scribe, son of Ur-e'e, the chief herdsman (šušš3).
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
[...] gilim# a2-an-tur-esz gid2 1/3(disz) gar 1(disz) gurusz u4 1(disz)-sze3# x x x 2(u) gurusz [...] ki a-gu-ta kiszib3 lu2-ha-ia3 sza3 bala-a mu us2-sa si#-ma-num2 ba#-[hul] lu2-ha-ia3 dub#-[sar] dumu ur-e11-e szusz3
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AR RIM 05, 39 322. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: B1 44.322 (New Brunswick Museum, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P101807). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.