Position in chronology
Chicago 20060119d
About this tablet
This is a routine Ur III administrative receipt from the city of Umma, dated by the Shulgi-era year name commemorating the destruction of Urbilum (a well-attested Ur III year formula, corresponding to Shulgi's 47th regnal year). It records a merchant, Ur-silaluh, receiving a substantial quantity of barley (over 32 gur) plus 10 shekels of silver from a man named Lanimu, apparently as payment for goods — likely textiles or garments. A second merchant, Ur-sukkal, son of Ur-[...], is named at the close, probably as a witness or co-party to the transaction. Texts like this illuminate the everyday commercial life of Ur III Mesopotamia, where state-employed merchants (dam-gar) moved grain, silver, and cloth through an economy tightly bound to royal administration.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A merchant named Ur-silaluh received a payment of 32 gur, 2 barig, and 8 sila of barley (measured by the royal standard) plus 10 shekels of silver, delivered within the city of Ur from a man called Lanimu. The record notes this was payment for goods — apparently garments or cloth. The transaction is dated to the month called "Bricks placed in the mold," in the year Urbilum was destroyed. A second merchant, Ur-sukkal, son of Ur-[...], is listed at the end, likely as a witness to the deal.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine32 gur, 2 barig, 8 sila barley, royal measure, 10 shekels silver, within Ur, from Lanimu, Ur-silaluh, the merchant, received. The purchase price of garments(?). Month: "Bricks placed in the mold" (month name of the Umma calendar), Year: "Urbilum was destroyed." Ur-sukkal, merchant, son of Ur-[...].
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
3(u) 2(asz) 2(barig) 8(disz) sila3 sze gur lugal 1(u) gin2 ku3-babbar sza3 uri5-ma-ka ki la-ni-mu-ta ur-sila#-luh dam-gar3-ra szu ba-ti nig2 sa10-ma tug2? iti sig4-i3-szub-ba-gal2-la mu ur-bi2-i3-lum ba-hul ur-sukkal dam-gar3 dumu ur-[x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — Chicago 20060119d. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 313086 (private: anonymous, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P313086). 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.