Position in chronology
DP 269
About this tablet
A receipt from the palace economy of Girsu (modern Tello, southern Iraq), around 2350 BCE. An official called the ka-šagan, acting through a man named Enšu, hands over eleven jugs of perfumed oil, which are booked into the storehouse of Baranamtara — the powerful wife of Lugalanda, ruler of the city-state of Lagash, who ran a large household economy in her own name. Tablets like this show a queen managing luxury goods and personnel with full bureaucratic rigor, and they are dated by her husband's regnal year and the local religious calendar.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eleven jugs of scented oil were delivered by Enšu, the oil-steward, who thereby settled his account — formally 'returning it into hand' — during the month of the ox festival in the calendar of the goddess Nanše. The oil was checked into the storehouse of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. Recorded in year 6 of his reign. In modern terms: a stock-receipt confirming that an official cleared an outstanding delivery of perfumed oil into the queen's warehouse, dated and filed.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine11 jugs of scented oil, via Enšu, the ka-šagan (oil-steward) — in the month "When-the-oxen-are-grown(?)" (gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a) of (the goddess) Nanše he returned it into hand (i.e. duly delivered/repaid it). (For) Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, the ruler of Lagash, into the storehouse it was brought. Year 6.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(u@c) 1(asz@c) dug i3-ir-a giri3 en-szu ka-szagan-ke4 iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a nansze-ka szu-a bi2-gi4 bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka e2-nig2-gur11-ra i3-kux(DU) 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 269. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220919) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.