Position in chronology
DP 292
About this tablet
A small clay receipt from Girsu in southern Iraq, written around 2350 BCE for the household of Bara-namtara, queen-consort of Lugal-anda, ruler of Lagaš. A fisherman working the great Mah canal hands back five talents of a plant or reed product to En-ig-gal, the estate's overseer, who books it into a storehouse associated with the god Bilgames — the figure later famous as Gilgameš. Tablets like this one, from the enormous archive of the queen's estate, are among the earliest detailed economic records anywhere, and they show a royal woman running a large enterprise of her own with named staff and dated accounts.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five talents of a-dar-tun material were handed back by Ur-igi-amaše, the fisherman assigned to the Mah canal. En-ig-gal, the overseer, took receipt of the goods and entered them into the storehouse built beside the E-bar of Bilgames. Booked to the estate of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugal-anda, ruler of Lagaš. Year 3.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 talents of a-dar-tun (reed/plant material): Ur-igi-amaše, the fisherman of the Mah canal, returned (it) into (En-ig-gal's) hand. En-ig-gal, the overseer, delivered (it) into the storehouse [built beside the E-bar] [of Bilgames (Gilgameš)]. (Household of) Bara-namtara, wife of Lugal-anda, ruler of Lagaš. 3rd (year).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(asz@c) gu2 a-dar-tun2 ur-igi-ama-sze3 szu-[ku6] i7 mah-ke4 szu-a bi2-gi4 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2 [e2-bar] [bil3-aga3-mes-sze3 du3-a] [i3-kux(DU)] bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 292. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220942) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.