Position in chronology
AAICAB 1/1, pl. 055, 1923-427
About this tablet
A small administrative receipt from the ancient Sumerian city of Umma, dating to the Ur III period (roughly 2100–2000 BCE). It records fifteen units of some commodity — possibly road-rations or travel provisions — and seven doves being delivered into the palace storehouse from an official named Lugal-kuzu. The document was sealed by a scribe named Ur-Šul-pa-e, who also identifies himself by his father's name, a standard bureaucratic formality. Tablets like this were the routine paperwork of a tightly organised state economy, tracking even small quantities of goods with great precision.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Low confidence15 'road(-rations)'[?] 7 doves(?) (entering) the palace storehouse — from Lugal-kuzu, via (the authority of) x-[...], sealed by Ur-[Šul]-pa-e: Month: 'Dal' Year: the throne of [Enlil was fashioned] Ur-[Šul-pa]-e, scribe, son of Lugal-kuga-[ni]
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo15 'road(-rations)'[?] 7 doves(?) (entering) the palace storehouse — from Lugal-kuzu, via (the authority of) x-[...], sealed by Ur-[Šul]-pa-e: Month: 'Dal' Year: the throne of [Enlil was fashioned] Ur-[Šul-pa]-e, scribe, son of Lugal-kuga-[ni]
6 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
Why it matters
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-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.