Position in chronology
DP 170
About this tablet
A brewery account from Girsu in southern Iraq, written about 2350 BCE, in the reign of one of the last rulers of Lagash. It records the grain products issued for two batches of beer — bread, beer-loaf (bappir) and malt — one batch of good dark beer delivered to a woman called Nin-emuše, described as 'the lady,' and a second batch brewed on the premises of the ruler's wife and drunk there. The account is booked under Amar-giri, a man attached to the palace brewer, and dated to a fifth year. Tablets like this come from the great archive of the é-mí, the household of the queen of Lagash, and show women running major economic institutions in their own right.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Beer account. For the first brew: 1 gur 1 ban2 3 sila of dub-bread for the fine beer, plus 1 ban2 3 sila of warm bread, 2 ban2 of beer-loaf and 3 ban2 of malt — this produced good dark beer, which was delivered to Nin-emuše, the lady. For the second: 3 ban2 of beer-loaf for fine beer and 5 ban2 of malt; that beer was brewed at the queen's own establishment and drunk there. The account is charged to Amar-giri, who works under the head brewer. Fifth year.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gur, 1 ban2, 3 sila of dub-bread — (for) fine beer; 1 ban2 3 sila of warm bread; 2 ban2, its beer-bread (bappir); 3 ban2, its malt — (this is) good dark beer. To Nin-emuše, to the lady, the woman, it was brought. 3 ban2 of beer-bread for fine beer, 5 ban2 of malt — its beer was brewed at the woman's (household) place. Consumed. Amar-giri, the man of the brewer. (Year) 5.
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(asz@c) 1(ban2@c) 3(disz@t) sila3 ninda dub kas sig15 1(ban2@c) 3(disz@t) sila3 ninda kum4-ma 2(ban2@c) bappir3-bi 3(ban2@c) munu4-bi kas ge6 du10-ga nin-e2-musz3-sze3 nin munus-ra ba-na-de6 3(ban2@c) bappir3 kas sig15 5(ban2@c) munu4 kas-bi ki munus-ka ba-sur gu7-a amar-giri16 lu2 lungax(|BIxNIG2|)-ka-kam 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 170. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220820) — 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.