Position in chronology
DP 085
About this tablet
A small, roughly square clay tablet from Girsu (modern Tello, southern Iraq), written a little before 2350 BCE, in the reign of Lugalanda of Lagash. It records masz-da-re-a — ceremonial gift-animals presented to the ruler's wife, Bara-namtara, who ran her own large household and archive. The donors are named with their status: a woman called Nin-uma, wife of Lala the herald, and the temple administrator (sanga) of the goddess Nanše. The livestock was handed over at the close of the month of the festival of Lugal-URU₁₁ and booked out by Enku, the palace animal-fattener, in the fifth year of the reign.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One lamb, presented as a ceremonial gift; the next entry is broken away. One male goat from Nin-uma, wife of Lala the herald. One stunted male goat from the temple administrator of the goddess Nanše. The animals were delivered to Lady Bara-namtara at the end of the month of the festival of Lugal-URU₁₁. Enku, the stock-fattener, entered them as disbursed. Year 5.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 lamb, [a gift-offering (masz-da-re-a)], [...] [1 male goat], UD — Nin-uma, wife of Lala, the herald. 1 short (stunted) male goat — the temple administrator of Nanše. In the month of the festival of Lugal-URU₁₁, at its completion, to Bara-namtara he delivered (them). Enku, the fattener, set (them) aside. (Year) 5.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(asz@c) sila4 [masz-da-re-a] [...] [1(asz@c) masz] UD nin-u3-ma dam la-la nimgir 1(asz@c) masz lugud2-da sanga nansze iti ezem lugal-uru11-ka til-la-ba bara2-nam-tar-ra mu-na-kux(DU) en-ku3 kuruszda-e ba-ra 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 085. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220735) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.