Position in chronology
DP 217
About this tablet
A small administrative record from the household of Baranamtara, queen of the city-state of Lagash and wife of the ruler Lugalanda, written at Girsu around 2350 BCE. It logs a single ewe, given as a festival contribution by the wife of the chief priest of the E-babbar temple, which the queen herself sacrificed at a shrine of the Abzu on the canal bank during the wool-plucking month, after which the animal was eaten. The tablet is a vivid glimpse of how elite women — the queen and a priest's wife — ran their own religious and economic affairs, with named officials (a fattener and a steward) accountable for the transaction.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One ewe, delivered as a festival gift — this one came from the wife of the head priest of the E-babbar temple. Queen Baranamtara offered it in sacrifice at the Abzu shrine on the canal bank during the sheep-shearing month, and afterwards the animal was consumed at the feast. Enku, the animal fattener, had charge of the ewe; Niglu the steward served as the accountable official for the transaction. Filed in year five.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 1 ewe, as a mašdaria-gift; it is (the contribution of) the wife of the sanga-priest of the E-babbar. At the Abzu on the bank of the canal, Baranamtara in the month of "plucking the sheep's wool" performed the offering rites (lit. "touched the wood"). It was consumed. Enku is the fattener (in charge). Niglu, the sukkal (vizier/steward), was the responsible official (maškim) for it. 5th (year).
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) u8 masz-da-re-a dam sanga e2-babbar2-ka-kam abzu gu2 i7-ka-sze3 bara2-nam-tar-ra iti ga2-udu-ur4-ra-ka gesz be2-tag gu7-a en-ku3 kuruszda-kam nig2-lu2 sukkal maszkim-bi 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 217. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220867) — 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.