Position in chronology
DP 358
About this tablet
This small clay tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello) is a routine administrative receipt from around 2400 BCE, recording a delivery of 420 bundles of cut reed harvested from a field called A-uš2. It names the foreman in charge of the reed-cutting crew and the plowmen who handled it, and it passes through the hands of En-ig-gal, a well-known steward (nubanda) who managed estate affairs for the ruling family of Lagash in this period. The reed was delivered to a storehouse called "the house at the edge of the city," and the note is dated to the twelfth day of a labor cycle — the everyday bookkeeping of a large temple/palace economy tracking raw materials and work crews.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a delivery receipt: 420 bundles of reed, cut from the field called A-uš2, were brought in under the supervision of the foreman Inim-du11. Ane-kura and the chief plowmen handled the transfer, and the reed was weighed out and delivered. The steward En-ig-gal took charge of it and had it brought to the storehouse known as "the house at the edge of the city." The record notes a delivery of 3 (units) and dates the transaction to the twelfth day of the labor period.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine7(geš'u) sa gi (=420) bundles of reed — reed that was cut. Inim-du11 is the foreman. Field A-uš2-ta ("from the field A-uš2"): Ane-kura, (and) the chief plowmen — it was weighed out/delivered. En-ig-gal, the steward (nubanda), (brought it) to the house at the edge of the city. Delivered: 3. Labor-duty of the 12th day.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
7(gesz2@c) sa gi gi ku5-ra2 inim-du11 ugula-kam GAN2 a-us2-ta a2-ne2-kur-ra sag-apin-ke4 mu-la2 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2 za3 iri-ka-ka i3-kux(DU) 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|) a2 u4 1(u@c) 2(disz@t)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 358. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221008) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.