Position in chronology
NRVN 1, 141
About this tablet
This is a small loan (debt-note) tablet from Nippur, part of the vast Ur III administrative archive. A man named Mašda borrowed 2 gur of barley from Ur-Šulpa'e, with the interest rate specified, and the document is dated by month, day, and a royal year-name commemorating the destruction of the mountain land of Simurrum — one of many such military year-names used by kings of the Ur III dynasty (here, Šulgi) to date everyday transactions. Documents like this show how ordinary credit and agricultural life in southern Mesopotamia around 2000 BCE were dated by the king's military campaigns.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Mašda took out a loan of 2 gur of barley from Ur-Šulpa'e, with interest set at a rate of 1 gur, 1 barig, and 4 ban2. Mašda formally received the barley. The transaction was recorded on the 19th day of the month of Apindua, in the year that Simurrum was destroyed — one of King Šulgi's campaign years. The document closes by naming the borrower again, Mašda, son of Ur-[...], though the father's full name is broken off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 gur of barley, as a loan. Interest: at the rate of 1 gur 1 barig 4 ban2 each. From Ur-Šulpa'e, Mašda received. Month: Apindua ('opening of the plow'), day 19 having passed, year: 'Simurrum was destroyed' (Šulgi year 25). Mašda, 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
2(asz) sze gur ur5-sze3 masz2 1(asz) gur 1(barig) 4(ban2)-ta ki ur-szul-pa-e3-ta masz-da5-e szu ba-ti iti apin-du8-a u4 1(u) 9(disz) ba-zal mu si-mu-ru-um ba-hul masz-da5 dumu ur-[...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — NRVN 1, 141. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Šulgi y23 — Simurrum destroyed based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ist Ni 00199 (cast: CBS 09717 ?) (Arkeoloji Müzeleri, Istanbul, Turkey) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P122357). 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.