Position in chronology
DP 146
About this tablet
An administrative account from Girsu (modern Tello) in southern Iraq, written in Sumerian roughly 2350 BCE, during the era of the Lagash city-state rulers. It records grain — emmer wheat — released from a named storehouse to two brewers, Amar-giri and Ili-beli, to cover their regular production quotas: two months' worth for one man, and a one-month allotment for dark beer for the other. The issuing official is En-šugigi, the household steward (agrig), and the entry is dated to the sixth regnal year. Texts like this come from the great household archive of the queen of Lagash and show how systematically a Sumerian institution fed and supplied its brewery.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Twenty-two gur and two barig of white emmer, measured by the large (saggal) gur standard, covering two months of standard rations, issued to Amar-giri. Twenty gur of emmer for the dark-beer allowance, covering one month and supplied as a replacement issue, to Ili-beli. Both men are brewers. The steward En-šugigi released the grain to them from the storehouse named Igi-zi-mu-še-bar. Year six.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine22 gur 2 barig of white emmer, (by) the saggal-gur measure — the regular provision for 2 months: (for) Amar-giri. 20 (gur) of emmer — the regular provision for dark beer for 1 month, it is set in its place (as replacement): (for) Ili-beli. They are the brewers. En-šugigi, the steward, from the storehouse (called) Igi-zi-mu-še-bar issued (it) to them. 6th (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(u@c) 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) ziz2 babbar2 gur saggal sa2-du11 iti 2(disz@t)-kam amar-giri16 2(u@c) ziz2 sa2-du11 kas ge6 iti 1(disz@t)-a-ka ki-ba gar-ra-am6 i3-li2-be6-li2 lu2 lungax(|BIxNIG2|)-me en-szu-gi4-gi4 agrig-ge ganun igi zi mu-sze3-bar-ta e-ne-ta-gar 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 146. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220796) — 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.