Position in chronology
DP 080
About this tablet
This is an administrative memorandum from the Early Dynastic city-state of Lagash (ancient Girsu, modern Tello), recording sheep and goats slaughtered and eaten on a specific ritual occasion. The animals were consumed by high officials — the ruler (ensi2), the priests of the goddesses Nanše and Ninmar, and the chief scribe — at a funerary rite: 'the day of the bier' and 'the place of libation' were where offerings were made for the dead. Texts of this type are common in the palace archive of Lagash and give us a rare glimpse of how meat rations were tied to court ceremony, mourning rituals, and the maintenance of the city's priesthood and bureaucracy around 2400 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This record tracks livestock handed out for a funerary meal at the palace of Lagash. The ruler received one sheep; the priest of Nanše got a goat; the priest of Ninmar received a lamb and a goat — all eaten together at a shared meal. Another sheep went to the ruler's household, and one more to the chief scribe. These animals were eaten specifically on the day of the funeral rites, at the place where libations were poured for the dead. A further sheep is recorded but the entry is broken off. The tablet closes with a summary line totaling up everything that was 'brought to be eaten' — confirming simply that these were sheep consumed as part of the ceremony.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 sheep: the ruler (ensi2). 1 goat: the priest (sanga) of Nanše. 1 lamb, 1 goat: the priest of Ninmar. — consumed together (at the riverbank/collective meal). 1 sheep: of the ruler's (household). 1 sheep: the chief scribe. On the day of the funeral bier, at the libation place, (these) were consumed. 1 sheep ... [...] Total, [summed up]: was brought to be eaten. It is (the) sheep (that) were consumed.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) udu ensi2 1(asz@c) masz sanga nansze 1(asz@c) sila4 1(disz@t) masz sanga nin-mar gu2-a ba-gu7 1(asz@c) udu ensi2-ka 1(asz@c) udu dub-sar-mah u4 gesz-bu10-na-ka ki-a-nag-ga2 ba-gu7 1(asz@c) udu x [...] gu2 [szu]-nigin2-[na] gu7-de3 ba-de6 udu gu7-a-am6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 080. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220730) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.