DP 285

~2400 BCE·Early Dynastic·P220935

About this tablet

A temple delivery receipt from the Sumerian city of Girsu, around 2400 BCE, in the archive of the household of the ruler's wife at Lagash. It records fish, salt, and fish-spawn brought in by a priest for the 'malt-eating festival' of the goddess Nanshe — one of the great religious feasts of the Lagash calendar. Tablets like this show how mythology and economy intertwined: the gods' festivals were provisioned through meticulous bookkeeping of very ordinary foodstuffs.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Written in modern English

Delivery record: ten tar-fish, one load of gur-fish, three loads of ubi-fish, three crates of salt, and two baskets of small saltwater fish (fish-spawn). All of it came in by the basket-load for the malt-eating festival of the goddess Nanshe. It was brought by Gala-tur, the anointed priest of A-duna. Filed in year one.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

10 tar-fish(?), 1 load of gur-fish(?), 3 loads of ubi-fish, 3 carrying-crates of salt, 2 reed baskets of sea-spawn (small sea fish), — fish (brought in) baskets for the malt-eating festival of Nanshe — Gala-tur, the anointed (gudu-)priest of A-duna, brought (this). 1st (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(u@c) tar
1(asz@c) gu2 gur10
3(asz@c) gu2 ubi
3(asz@c) gab2-il2 mun
2(asz@c) gurdub agargara ab-ba
ku6 dusu ezem munu4 gu7
nansze-ka
gala-tur
gudu4 a-dun-a-ke4
mu-de6-a 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 285. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220935) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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