Position in chronology
DP 496
About this tablet
This is a short receipt from the archive of a great household at Girsu, in the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, around 2350 BCE (the Early Dynastic 'Presargonic' period). En-iggal was the household's chief administrator, a figure who appears on hundreds of tablets from this archive. Here he gives wooden farm equipment (yokes and plough parts) from a storehouse to Ur-Enki the carpenter, most likely so he could repair or finish them before the ploughing season. It gives a small glimpse of how a large Sumerian estate kept track of its ploughing gear and the craftsmen who looked after it.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Five yokes, two plough-heads and two further plough fittings, plus one more item whose name is too damaged to read, went to Ur-Enki the carpenter. En-iggal, the estate's overseer, issued them to him from the courtyard storehouse. The record is dated to year 4.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 5 yokes, 2 plough-heads, 2 plough 'mates' (a plough part), [… …] …-de3 — for Ur-Enki, the carpenter; En-iggal, the overseer, Reverse from the courtyard-house (e2 ki-sal4-la) issued (them) to him. (Year) 4.
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
5(asz@c) szu4-dul5 2(asz@c) sag-apin 2(asz@c) dam apin [x x] x-de3 ur-en-ki nagar-ra en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2 ki-sal4-la-ta e-na-ta-gar 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 496. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221146) — 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.