Position in chronology
DP 259
About this tablet
An administrative receipt from Girsu, in the Sumerian state of Lagash, dated to the first year of the reformer-ruler Urukagina (around 2350 BCE). Two named shepherds of wool-bearing sheep each account for one animal, which the palace formally takes back into its control during a festival month of the goddess Nanshe. It is a small but vivid piece of the intense record-keeping of the Lagash palace economy — every single sheep tracked by name of its keeper — and it carries the name of one of history's earliest known reformer-kings.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Two shepherds in charge of wool sheep, Nigar-mud and Lugal-da, each turned in one wool sheep. During the month of Nanshe's 'malt-eating' festival, this duty had been laid on them, and now Urukagina, ruler of Lagash, has formally received the animals back at the palace. Filed in year 1 of his rule — essentially a stamped receipt confirming that the shepherds' outstanding obligation to the palace has been settled.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 wool sheep — Nigar-mud; 1 wool sheep — Lugal-da: they are shepherds of wool-sheep. In the month of the festival 'Malt-eating of Nanshe', it was imposed(?) upon them (as an obligation). Urukagina, the ruler of Lagash, in the palace had it returned into (his) hand. (Year) 1.
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) udu siki nigar-mud 1(asz@c) udu siki lugal-da sipa udu siki-ka-me iti ezem munu4 gu7 nansze-ka na ba-neda-ri URU-KA-gi-na ensi2 lagasz-ke4 e2-gal-la szu-a bi2-gi4 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 259. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220909) — 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.