Position in chronology
RA 009, 043 SA 24
About this tablet
A one-day accounting record from Puzriš-Dagan (modern Drehem), the great livestock clearinghouse of the Ur III state near Nippur, dated to the reign of King Šulgi (late 21st century BCE). It logs lambs disbursed as offerings to the gods Utu, Enlil, Ninlil, Nusku, and Ninurta — animals that had been delivered by named officials, including the governor of the city of Cutha — plus two sheep for a scribe. Thousands of such tablets survive, and together they let historians reconstruct the daily religious and administrative machinery of one of the world's first bureaucratic empires.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
On the 10th of the Festival-of-Šulgi month, in the year Kimaš and Hurti were destroyed, the following animals were issued: one lamb for the sun-god Utu, delivered by the governor of Cutha; one lamb each for Enlil and Ninlil, delivered by the zabar-dab official; one lamb each for Nusku and Ninurta, delivered by Lugal-melam, with the zabar-dab acting as the responsible officer; and two sheep for Dada the scribe, with ARAD-mu signing off as responsible officer. All booked as the day's expenditures.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 lamb — (for) Utu: delivery of the governor of Gudua (Cutha). 1 lamb — (for) Enlil, 1 lamb — (for) Ninlil: delivery of the zabar-dab official. 1 lamb — (for) Nusku, 1 lamb — (for) Ninurta: delivery of Lugal-melam; the zabar-dab official was the responsible official (maškim). 2 sheep — (for) Dada the scribe; ARAD-mu was the responsible official (maškim). Expenditure, on the 10th day. Month: 'Festival of Šulgi.' Year: 'Kimaš and Hurti were destroyed.'
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(disz) sila4 utu mu-kux(DU) ensi2 gu2-du8-a 1(disz) sila4 en-lil2 1(disz) sila4 nin-lil2 mu-kux(DU) zabar-dab5 1(disz) sila4 nusku 1(disz) sila4 nin-urta mu-kux(DU) lugal-me-lam2 zabar-dab5 maszkim 2(disz) udu da-da dub-sar ARAD2-mu maszkim zi-ga u4 1(u)-kam iti ezem-szul-gi mu ki-masz u3 hu-ur5-ti ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — RA 009, 043 SA 24. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 127347 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Puzriš-Dagan (mod. Drehem) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P127347). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.