Position in chronology
DP 143
About this tablet
A small barley-disbursement record from Girsu in southern Iraq, written about 2350 BCE for the household of the ruling family of Lagash. Two outlays are booked: fodder grain for the household's birds, handed over by a man named En-ušure, and a ration for a visiting man from the rival city of Umma who was lodging with Ur-mud, the household steward. The account is filed under the woman Geme-Tarsirsir, dated to a named month and the second regnal year, and signed off by En-iggal, the overseer who kept the books of the queen's estate. Tablets like this one are the daily bookkeeping behind one of the best-documented economic archives of the third millennium.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two barig of barley went out as feed for the birds; En-ušure delivered it. Another four ban of barley went to the man from Umma who was staying with Ur-mud, issued to him as his grain ration. Both entries are charged as fodder against the barley of the bara-gur-a, and the account stands in the name of Geme-Tarsirsir. Dated to the month gu-ra-bi-mua, year 2. En-iggal, the overseer, made the distribution.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 barig of barley, to feed the birds — En-ušure brought (it). 4 ban of barley: the man of Umma who resides with Ur-mud; it was brought as his barley ration. Fodder: barley of the bara-gur₅-a. It belongs to Geme-Tarsirsir. Month: gu₄-ra₂-bi₂-mu₂-a. En-iggal, the overseer, distributed (it) to them. 2nd (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
2(barig@c) sze muszen-ne2 gu7-de3 en-uszur3-re2 ba-de6 4(ban2@c) sze lu2 umma ur2-mud an-da-ti-la sze-ba-sze3 ba-de6 gu7 sze bara2 gur5-a geme2-tar-sir2-sir2-ka-kam iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e-ne-[ba] 2(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 143. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220793) — 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.