Position in chronology
MVN 05, 001
About this tablet
This is a small Ur III administrative receipt from the city of Umma, recording a delivery of barley measured in gur and ban2 (roughly 3 gur, 4 ban2) as part of the regular offering (sa2-du11) owed to the god Šara, Umma's patron deity. A man named Ur-lisi is the source of the goods, and a recipient called Esagil formally 'received' them — a routine bookkeeping entry from a temple or state redistribution economy over four thousand years ago. The year name anchors it firmly to the reign of king Šu-Sin, since it refers to the (second) destruction of the city of Karahar, a known royal military campaign.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet is a receipt: 3 gur and 4 ban2 of grain (by the royal standard measure) were handed over as the regular offering due to the god Šara. The grain came from a man named Ur-lisi, and someone named Esagil signed for it — 'received.' The transaction is dated to the month called Min-eš, in the year that Karahar was destroyed for the second time (a year name placing this in the reign of king Šu-Sin of Ur). The final line names another person, Lu-AN-..., but the tablet breaks off before more can be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 gur 4 ban2, royal (measure) — regular offering of (the god) Šara. From Ur-lisi, Esagil received. Month: "Min-eš". Year: "Karahar was destroyed for the second time". Lu?-AN.[...]
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
3(asz) 4(ban2) lugal sa2-du11 szara2 ki ur-li9-si4-ta e2-sag-il2 szu ba-ti iti min-esz3 mu a-ra2 2(disz@t)-kam kar2-har ba-hul lu2?-AN.[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 001. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114221 (private: Pinches, unlocated (dispersed)) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114221). 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.