Position in chronology
DP 357
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello), part of the large 'Documents Présargoniques' (DP) archive of the Lagash state, dating to roughly the 24th century BCE. It records a delivery of cut reed bundles — a staple raw material used for baskets, matting, roofing, and boat-building — from an agricultural field into a state or temple storehouse. The transaction is overseen by Enigal, a well-known administrator (nu-banda3) who appears in dozens of similar tablets managing the household economy of the ruling family of Lagash, and it is dated not by month but by a 'labor-duty' count of ten days, a distinctive early bookkeeping practice.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
420 bundles of cut reed were brought in from the field known as 'A-us2,' harvested under the foreman Inimdu. Inimanizi, the chief plowman, delivered the reed to the storehouse at the edge of the city. Enigal, the administrator, logged it as the third such delivery, counted as ten days' worth of labor-duty.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine7(geš'u) sa gi (= 420 bundles of reed) gi ku5-ra2 (cut reed) Inimdu is the foreman. From the field "A-us2": Inimanizi, the chief plowman, (delivered it) to the house at the edge of the city. Enigal, the administrator, received it (delivery) — 3rd (entry). Labor-duty of the 10th day.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 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
7(gesz2@c) sa gi gi ku5-ra2 inim-du11 ugula-kam GAN2 a-us2-ta inim-ma-ni-zi sag-apin-ke4 e2 za3 iri-ka-ka en-ig-gal nu-banda3 i3-kux(DU) 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|) a2 u4 1(u@c)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 357. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221007) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.