Position in chronology
DP 359
About this tablet
This is a small, cushion-shaped Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash), recording a delivery of reed bundles — 55 of them, each tallied separately — handled by workers under a man named Lugal-dalla and overseen by Enigal, a manager (nu-banda3) well known from other Presargonic Lagash records. The goods were delivered to a storehouse called the 'House at the Edge of the City,' and the transaction was dated simply to 'day 1' of some month. Tablets like this are the bookkeeping backbone of the temple-household economy of Lagash around 2400 BCE, tracking raw materials such as reeds used for construction, baskets, or matting.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifty-five bundles of reed, counted one by one, were handed over by the workmen of Lugal-dalla. Enigal, the manager, took delivery and had them brought into the storehouse known as the House at the Edge of the City. The transaction is dated to day one (of the month).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1(gesz2) [=60] minus 5(asz), each counted individually: bundles of reed — the men of Lugal-dalla. Enigal, the manager, returned (them) into his hand at the House-at-the-Edge-of-the-City. Day 1.
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
1(gesz2@c) la2 5(asz@c)? didli-bi sa gi lu2 lugal-dalla-ke4-ne en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2 za3 iri-ka-ka szu-na i3-ni-gi4 u4 1(disz@t)-kam
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 359. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221009) — 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.