Position in chronology
HSS 68, 462
About this tablet
This is a routine Ur III livestock account from Puzriš-Dagan (Drehem), the great redistribution center that fed the royal court and cult with animals from across the empire. It records small numbers of gazelles delivered dead into the accounts across two festival months, received by an official named Šu-Kubum. The tablet closes with a seal caption identifying Šu-Kubum as the 'mounted courier' (rāgaba) and servant of Geme-Suen, wife of King Šulgi of Ur — a small but telling glimpse of the queen's own household staff and their role in the palace's animal economy.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Twelve gazelles were entered into the account as dead, during the month of the Akitu festival. Two more gazelles were entered as dead in the month of the Great Festival; Šu-Kubum took charge of them. This happened in the year following the one in which Simurrum was destroyed for the third time — a Šulgi-era date. The tablet ends with a seal note: it belongs to Šu-Kubum, a royal courier, who identifies himself as the servant of Geme-Suen, wife of King Šulgi of Ur.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine12 gazelles, delivered dead (as carcasses). Month: Akiti (the a2-ki-ti festival month). 2 gazelles, delivered dead; month: ezem-mah (the Great Festival month). Šu-Kubum received (them). Year following the year: "Simurrum was destroyed for the third time." Geme-Suen, wife of Šulgi, king of Ur. (Seal of) Šu-Kubum, the mounted courier (rāgaba), your servant.
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(u) 2(disz) masz-da3 ba-usz2 iti a2-ki-ti 2(disz) masz-da3 ba-usz2 iti ezem-mah szu-ku8-bu-um-e szu [ba]-ti mu us2-sa a-ra2 3(disz)-kam-asz si-mu-ru-um ba-hul geme2-suen dam szul-gi lugal uri5-ma szu-ku-bu-um ra2-[gaba] ARAD2-[zu]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — HSS 68, 462. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: SM 1911.10.420 (Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P407420). 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.