Position in chronology
DP 103
About this tablet
This small cushion-shaped clay tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash) records a case of compensation: a cowherd named Dingir-šešmu was injured — apparently his toe was pecked or gashed — by a goose (a 'dal-bird') belonging to a man named Ninĝirsu-lumu. Ten shekels of silver were paid as compensation, and the payment was handled personally by Sasa, the wife of the Lagash ruler Uru-inimgina (Urukagina), who saw it deposited into the palace. Tablets like this one are some of the earliest surviving records of personal-injury compensation, administered through the palace household under the queen's authority, around 2350 BCE.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A cowherd named Dingir-šešmu was hurt — his toe was cut or gashed — by a goose belonging to Ninĝirsu-lumu. As compensation, ten shekels of silver changed hands. Queen Sasa, wife of Uru-inimgina, ruler of Lagash, personally saw to it that the silver was brought into the palace and placed in her own hands. It's a brief but telling record: even a minor workplace injury involving livestock triggered a formal silver payment, tracked and countersigned at the highest level of the palace administration.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 toe(?), numbering 1(?) — a toe (was) dug out/cut — (of) Dingir-šešmu, who is a cowherd — (by) Ninĝirsu-lumu('s) dal-bird (goose) — he/it was pecked/struck. Its silver: 10 shekels. Sasa, wife of Uru-inimgina, ruler of Lagash, into the palace, into her hand, caused it to be returned. 1.
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) gir mu 1(disz@t) gir dun-a dingir-szesz-mu unu3-kam nin-gir2-su-lu2-mu dal-muszen-da na ba-da-ri ku3-bi 1(u@c) gin2 sa6-sa6 dam URU-KA-gi-na ensi2 lagasz-ka-ra e2-gal-la szu-na i3-ni-gi4 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 103. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220753) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.