Position in chronology
AuOr 31, 233 05
About this tablet
This is a small livestock receipt from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great royal collection and redistribution center for sheep and goats under the Ur III kings. A single nanny goat described as of Šimaški stock (Šimaški was a highland region in western Iran, a frequent source of tribute animals and also the name later applied to a dynasty there) is handed over by an official named Abba-saga and taken into the charge of a man named Utamišaram. The year name places the transaction in the reign of Šu-Suen, in the year Huhnuri was destroyed — a real military campaign against a town in the Zagros foothills, so this humble receipt is a tiny data-point from the same imperial machine that generated that war.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One nanny goat, of the Šimaški breed, was handed over on the 14th day. It came from Abba-saga and was received by Utamišaram. The transaction is dated to the month Šu-eššša, in the year 'Huhnuri was destroyed' — a year name commemorating a military victory under king Šu-Suen. The tablet closes with a total of one animal.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 nanny goat, (of) Šimaški, the 14th day, from Abba-[sa]ga, Utamišaram received (took in charge). Month: "Šu-eššša", year: "Huhnuri [was destroyed]." 1 (total).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 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.
Transliteration
1(disz) ud5 szimaszgi# u4 1(u) 4(disz)-kam ki ab-ba-[sa6]-ga-[ta] u2-ta2-mi#-szar#-ra-am i3-dab5# iti# szu-esz5-sza mu hu-uh2#-nu#-ri [ba-hul] 1(disz)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AuOr 31, 233 05. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 464285 (private: anonymous, Barcelona, Spain) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P464285). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
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.