Position in chronology
DP 210
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from the city of Girsu in southern Iraq, written around 2350 BCE during the reign of Lugalanda of Lagash. It records festival gifts — two goats — presented by named officials to Queen Baranamtara, one of the most powerful women of the Early Dynastic period, who ran her own vast household economy. The animals arrived at the palace during the 'Malt-Eating Festival of Nanshe' and were handed over to Enku, the professional animal fattener, to be raised for later use. Tablets like this show a queen's estate operating as a meticulous bureaucracy, tracking even single animals.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Received: one short-haired goat kid, a festival gift from Gešgalsi the chief official, and one wool kid from Dugru, the temple administrator. Both were delivered to Queen Baranamtara at the palace during the month of the Malt-Eating Festival of the goddess Nanshe. Enku, the animal fattener, took the goats out of the delivery and into his care. Recorded in year 4.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 short goat kid, (as) mašdaria-offering, (from) Gešgalsi, the chief-UN official; 1 wool-bearing kid (from) the temple administrator Dugru: (for) Baranamtara, in the month of the festival 'Malt-Eating of Nanshe', into the palace it was delivered to her. Enku, the fattener, took them out. (Year) 4.
Our translation engine — Fable 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) masz lugud2-da masz-da-re-a geszgal-si gal-UN-ka 1(asz@c) masz sig sanga dug-ru bara2-nam-tar-ra iti ezem munu4 gu7 nansze-ka e2-gal-la mu-na-kux(DU) en-ku3 kuruszda-e ba-ra 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 210. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220860) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-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.