Position in chronology
DP 382
About this tablet
This small cushion-shaped tablet is a household accounting record from the archive of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi) of the city-state of Lagash, around 2400 BCE. It tallies bundles of flax (gu) of three different grades — plucked, second-quality, and third-quality — delivered from a named field and checked by two officials under the manager Enigal. Dozens of tablets like this one, recovered at Tello (ancient Girsu), document the day-to-day textile-fiber economy managed by the ruling household, one of the earliest bureaucracies known to history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a receipt logging flax deliveries by quality: 80 bundles of plucked flax, 90 bundles of second-grade flax, and 44 bundles of third-grade flax. All of it came from the assigned plot known as the field of Uugig, handled under the manager Enigal. The officials Musig and Uu (the overseer) checked and confirmed the count — noted here as 6. The record is filed under the household of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, the ruler of Lagash — essentially her office's copy of the transaction.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine80 bundles of plucked flax (gu-suh-ha), 90 bundles of second-quality flax (gu-us2, "following"), 44 bundles of third-quality flax (gu, third one, "following"), (from) the allotted place — from the field of Uugig, (under) Enigal, the manager; Musig (and) Uu, the overseer, have counted (verified) them: 6. (Account of) Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash.
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) 2(u@c) sa gu suh5-ha 1(gesz2@c) 3(u@c) sa gu us2 4(u@c) 4(asz@c) sa gu 3(disz@t)-kam-ma us2 ki szum2-ma GAN2 u3-gig-ka-ta en-ig-gal nu-banda3 mu-SIG7 U2-U2 ugula szu-ni ba-szid 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|) bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 382. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221032) — 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.