Position in chronology
DP 370
About this tablet
This is a receipt from the household of Queen Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of the city-state of Lagaš in southern Iraq, around 2350 BCE. It records a flax harvest: an overseer called En-iggal had flax pulled up from a plot in the marshland, then counted it into the storehouse. Flax was grown for linen, and records like this are part of one of the earliest large, well-organised archives we have for an elite household, which was run by a woman.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
En-iggal, an overseer, harvested 678 bundles of šušin-grade flax by pulling it up from a plot in the marsh that measured 80 sar. He counted the bundles out to En-ušurre, who ran the storehouse. The record is filed under Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagaš, in the sixth year.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 678 (literally 600 + 60 + 20 minus 2) bundles of flax, šušin-quality; its area in sar is 80. En-iggal, the overseer, pulled (it) up from the marsh. To En-ušurre, the man of the storehouse, he counted it out. Reverse Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagaš. Year 6.
Our translation engine — Opus 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
1(gesz'u@c) 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) sa gu szuszin sar-bi 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c)-am6 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 ambar-ta mu-SIG7 en-uszur3-re2 lu2 e2-nig2-ka-ra e-na-szid bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 370. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221020) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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