Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/1, pl. 055, 1923-427
About this tablet
A small clay receipt from Umma in southern Iraq, written about 2044 BCE under the Third Dynasty of Ur. It records a consignment of birds — fifteen of one kind and seven doves — handed over by an official named Lugal-kuzu and entered into the palace stores, with a named carrier and a seal of guarantee. The reverse carries the seal legend of the responsible official, Ur-Šulpa'e, who identifies himself as a scribe and son of Lugal-kugani. Tablets like this are the routine bookkeeping of the vast Ur III state, in which every animal moving between provincial office and palace kitchen was logged, dated and sealed.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Delivery to the palace: fifteen kaskal-birds and seven doves, received from Lugal-kuzu and delivered by a courier whose name is now broken away. Sealed and certified by Ur-Šulpa'e. Dated to the month of Dal, in the year the throne of Enlil was made. The seal on the back reads: Ur-Šulpa'e, scribe, son of Lugal-kugani.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 15 kaskal-[…] ; 7 tu-gur-doves — brought into the palace, from Lugal-kuzu, via (the conveyor) […]-x, under seal of Ur-[Šul]pa'e. Month: "Dal(!)." Year: "The throne of En[lil was fashioned]" (= Amar-Suen year 3). Seal (reverse) Ur-[Šul]pa'e, scribe, son of Lugal-kuga[ni].
Our translation engine — Opus 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.
Engine notes
read from photo6 uncertain terms ↓
- kaskal — Literally 'road/journey'; in administrative contexts often refers to road-rations or travel-related commodities. The sign is partially broken in the transliteration and the photo.
- tu-gur8 — Standard Sumerian word for 'dove' or 'pigeon'; here likely a commodity being delivered. Reading plausible but sign cluster not fully verifiable from photo.
- kux(KWU147)-ra — The verb 'to enter (a storehouse)'; the sign KWU147 is a rare variant entry sign. Reading follows the transliteration; cannot independently confirm from photo at this resolution.
- iti dal — A month name in the Umma calendar; 'dal' month. The reading is consistent with known Umma administrative documents.
- gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2 — Standard restoration of a well-known Ur III year name: 'the year the throne of Enlil was fashioned.' Restoration is accepted in scholarship but the signs are broken/missing on the tablet.
- giri3 x-[...] — 'Via (the authority/foot of) PN': giri3 introduces an intermediary official. The personal name following is broken and cannot be read.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a small, rounded Ur III tablet (museum number 1923.427 visible on the edge label) with two faces. The obverse (upper image) preserves several lines of cuneiform in relatively shallow but readable impressions; the upper-left area shows some surface erosion and a loss of clay at the top edge, which is consistent with the '#' damage notations in the transliteration. The reverse (lower image) is more worn and partially damaged at the lower left, with fewer clearly legible signs. Visually I can confirm the presence of numerical signs in the first line that are consistent with 1(u) 5(disz), and cluster of signs in the middle of the obverse that are compatible with the E2-GAL sequence. The KISZIB3 and personal name signs toward the bottom of the obverse are partially readable but difficult to fully confirm at this resolution. The reverse shows what appear to be the DUB-SAR title signs and a concluding DUMU patronymic line, agreeing with the transliteration. The key uncertainties are: (1) kaskal with lacuna in line 1 — cannot verify the full sign from the photo; (2) tu-gur8 ('dove/pigeon') is a plausible reading but the sign cluster is not fully clear in the photo; (3) the giri3 line's second element is explicitly broken in both transliteration and photo; (4) the year formula restoration [gu-za en-lil2-la2 ba-dim2] is a standard Ur III year name and is not contradicted by the photo but cannot be confirmed due to damage.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3371 in / 1065 out tokens
Transliteration
1(u) 5(disz) kaskal#[] 7(disz) tu-gur8 e2-gal kux(KWU147)-ra ki# lugal-ku3-zu-ta giri3 x-[...] kiszib3 ur-[szul]-pa-e3# iti dal! mu gu#-za en-[lil2-la2 ba-dim2] ur-[szul-pa]-e3# dub-sar dumu lugal-ku3#-ga#-[ni]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Ur III (ca. 2100-2000 BC)) — AAICAB 1/1, pl. 055, 1923-427. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format). [year-name] Dated to Ur-Nammu y14 — The throne of Enlil was fashioned based on canonical year-name formula in the transliteration.
Attribution
Image: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK (P142795) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.