Position in chronology
DP 438
About this tablet
This is an administrative record from Girsu, in the city-state of Lagash in southern Iraq, from around 2400 BCE. It tracks timber roof-beams. One lot of new beams came from a marsh woodland linked to Dam-dingirmu, a lady of the ruling family; another lot of old, probably salvaged, beams came from a building on a mound. The overseer En-iggal counted all of them into a storehouse. The last line notes that two tablets were made for the transaction, which shows how carefully Lagash's institutional bureaucracy kept duplicate records.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Thirty-five new roof-beams, cut from Dam-dingirmu's timber in the marsh woodland, were shipped by boat. Another forty-three old beams were brought in from the house on the mound of Me-Kulaba. All of them were stored in the wool depot belonging to Nin-inimzida. En-iggal, the overseer, counted what was put into storage. Dated year 2. Two copies of this record were made.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 35 new roof-beams, wood of Dam-dingirmu, from the marsh forest, were loaded onto boats. 43 old roof-beams from the house of the mound of Me-Kulaba were brought in. In the house of the wool depot of Nin-inimzida they were placed. Reverse En-iggal, the overseer, counted those placed in the house. (Year) 2. Its tablets: 2.
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
3(u@c) 5(asz@c) ur3 gibil gesz dam-dingir-mu tir ambar-ta ma2-a e-me-gar-ra-am6 4(u@c) 3(asz@c) ur3 sumun e2 du6 me-kul-aba4-ta-ka-ta i3-kux(DU)-a-am6 e2 ki-siki-ka nin-inim-zi-da-ka-ka e-gal2 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2-a gal2-la-bi bi2-szid 2(|ASZxDISZ@t|) dub-bi 2(disz@t)-am6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 438. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221088) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.