Position in chronology
MVN 05, 013
About this tablet
This is a Neo-Sumerian (Ur III period) administrative tablet from Umma recording an intake or issue of woven textiles — 943 standard cloths, 27 smaller ones, and a separate note of 60 units tied to the weavers who produced them. A total weight in wool-equivalent talents and mina is given, the textiles are identified as 'gu2-na'-type garments belonging to the city, the transaction runs from an official named Lu-kalla, and it is authenticated by the seal of I-kalla. Tablets like this were routine bookkeeping in the vast state textile industry of Ur III Sumer, where thousands of workers, mostly women, wove cloth under close bureaucratic control. The year formula dates it precisely to the year King Šu-Suen's forces destroyed the city or region of Šašru.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record logs a shipment of woven cloth: 943 standard textiles and 27 smaller ones, with a note that 60 units relate to the weavers involved. The whole lot weighed 58 talents, 32 and two-thirds mina, and 2 shekels — likely reflecting the raw wool used to make it. The cloth is described as 'gu2-na' garments belonging to the city. The transaction was handled through an official named Lu-kalla and certified with the seal of I-kalla. It's dated to the year Šašru was destroyed, a year-name from the reign of King Šu-Suen.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine943 (i.e., 600+300+43) woven textiles (tug2 uš-bar); 27 small woven textiles; 60 (units), the total of the weavers; Their weight: 58 talents (gu2), 32 2/3 mina, 2 shekels; Textiles — gu2-na-type — of the city; From Lu-kalla; Under seal of I-kalla; Year: "Šašru was destroyed" (Šu-Suen year 7).
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
1(gesz'u) 5(gesz2) 4(u) 3(disz) tug2 usz-bar 2(u) 7(disz) tug2 usz-bar tur 1(gesz2) usz-bar ka-kam ki-la2-bi 5(u) 8(asz) gu2 3(u) 2(disz) 2/3(disz) ma-na 2(disz) gin2 tug2 gu2-na iri ki lu2-kal-la-ta kiszib3 i3-kal-la mu sza-asz-szu2-ru ba-hul
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — MVN 05, 013. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y38 — Šaššuru destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Anonymous 114233 (private: anonymous, unlocated) — from Umma (mod. Tell Jokha) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P114233). 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.