Position in chronology
DP 140
About this tablet
A ration roster from Girsu in southern Iraq, written around 2350 BCE in the city-state of Lagash. It counts the work-gangs of porters under four named foremen — Ur-šerda, Inim-du, U-U and Ur-sag — together with a handful of specialists (boatmen, a reed-worker, two carpenters) who each get a measured allowance of barley. The closing note is the interesting part: the chief administrator En-iggal states that the figures were extracted from the master tablet of Ningirsu's barley rations, in the temple god's first year of the reckoning. It is a secondary document drawn from a larger ledger — bureaucratic bookkeeping about bookkeeping.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Headcount of the porter gangs: Ur-šerda, 16 men; Inim-du, 18; U-U, 15; Ur-sag, 15. Also four boatmen, one reed-worker at 2 barig of barley, one carpenter at 2 barig, and 3 barig for the carpenter from Keš. Those named are the gang foremen. En-iggal, the overseer, had these figures copied out of the master ledger of Ningirsu's barley rations. Year 1.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine16 men — Ur-šerda; 20 minus 2 (18) — Inim-du; 15 — U-U; 4 — boatmen; 1 reed-worker: 2 barig; 1 carpenter: 2 barig; 3 barig — (the man) from Keš, carpenter; 15 — Ur-sag. (These are) the foremen of the porters. En-iggal, the overseer (nu-banda), from the tablet of the barley rations of Ningirsu had it copied out. 1st (year).
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(u@c) 6(asz@c) lu2 ur-szer7-da 2(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) inim-du11 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) U2-U2 4(asz@c) ma2-lah5 1(asz@c) ad-kup4 2(barig@c) 1(asz@c) nagar 2(barig@c) 3(barig@c) kesz3-ta nagar 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) ur-sag ugula il2-ne en-ig-gal nu-banda3 dub sze-ba nin-gir2-su-ka-ta e-ta-sar 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 140. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220790) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.