Position in chronology
DP 147
About this tablet
A household account from Girsu in the kingdom of Lagash, about 2350 BCE, from the great estate archive that the French excavators published as the DP texts. It records grain going out to two named brewers, Amar-giri and Ili-beli: white emmer covering two months of their standing allowance, and a further twenty gur of emmer for the dark beer, booked for one month as a replacement issue. The steward En-šu-gigi released the grain from a storehouse that carried its own name, and the scribe closed the tablet with a year number and a note that this was the third such disbursement — the ordinary bookkeeping that kept an ancient brewery supplied.
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, covering two months of Amar-giri's standard allowance. A further twenty gur of emmer for the dark beer, one month's worth, entered as a substitute issue, to Ili-beli. Both men are brewers. The steward En-šu-gigi released the grain to them out of the storehouse called Igi-zi-mu-še-bar. Year 6; this is the third disbursement.
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: regular provisions (sá-du₁₁) for 2 months — Amar-giri. 20 (gur) of emmer: regular provisions of dark beer, for 1 month — it has been set in its place (as a replacement issue) — Ili-beli. They are the brewers. En-šu-gigi, the steward, from the storehouse Igi-zi-mu-še-bar issued it to them. (Year) 6. It is the 3rd issue.
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|) 3(disz@t) gar-am6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 147. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220797) — 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.