DP 335

~2400 BCE·Early Dynastic·P220985

About this tablet

A small clay tablet from Girsu (modern Tello, southern Iraq), written about 2350 BCE for the great household of the city-state of Lagash. It is a personnel roster: seven fishermen, listed by name in two classes (four counted with one numeral form, three with another), tallied as registered members of the workforce, with Gu'u — himself one of the seven — named as their foreman. The scribal note at the end identifies En-iggal, the household's chief overseer, as the man who entered their names, and dates the record to a third regnal year. En-iggal is one of the best-documented administrators of the ancient world: his name closes hundreds of tablets from the temple estate of the queen of Lagash.

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

Written in modern English

Roster of date-fishermen: Lugal-geš-bur, Ša-nugal, E-igara-su, A-nukuš, Ur-šu-ila, Lugal-igi and Gu'u — four in the first category, three in the second, seven men on the books. En-iggal, the overseer, entered their names for the record. Gu'u serves as their foreman. Filed in year 3.

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

Translation — our engine

Our engine

Medium confidence

1 (unit/ration): Lugal-geš-bur; 1: Ša-nugal; 1 (unit/ration): E-igara-su; 1: A-nukuš; 1 (unit/ration): Ur-šu-ila; 1: Lugal-igi; 1 (unit/ration): Gu'u. Total: 4 (and) 3 — persons registered on the tablet (sag-dub). They are the date-fishermen. En-iggal, the overseer (nu-banda), wrote down their names for this purpose. Gu'u is their foreman. (Year) 3.

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

1(asz@c) lugal-gesz-bur2
1(disz@t) sza3-nu-gal2
1(asz@c) e2-i3-gara2-su3
1(disz@t) a2-nu-kusz2
1(asz@c) ur-szu-il2-la
1(disz@t) lugal-igi
1(asz@c) gu-u2
szu-nigin2 4(disz@t) 3(disz@t) sag dub
szu-ku6 zu2-lum-ma-me
en-ig-gal
nu-banda3
mu-bi-sze3 e-sar
gu-u2
ugula-bi 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)

Scholarly note

Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 335. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).

Attribution

Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220985) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).

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