Position in chronology
DP 543
About this tablet
This small cushion-shaped tablet is a household account from the temple estate of the goddess Baba at Girsu (modern Tello), part of the famous Presargonic 'Baba archive' administered under officials such as Enigal the nubanda (manager) — a name well known from dozens of similar Lagash tablets of the 24th century BCE. It records two withdrawals of barley from different storehouses in two different named months, followed by an issue of seed-grain and ox-fodder to a plowman named Diutu, who worked the fields assigned to Baba's female labor force. Texts like this are the raw bookkeeping of a great temple household — tracking grain in and out of granaries with the same rigor a modern institution would apply to a ledger.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen gur of barley, at the standard rate, were taken out of Baba's storehouse in the month called 'Granary-Opening.' Separately, sixteen gur and two barig of barley were carried out of the garden storehouse in the month named for Ningirsu's new house at Antasura. Then some barley — seed grain and fodder for the plow oxen — was handed over to a man named Diutu, the senior plowman working the fields of Baba's female laborers; the manager Enigal is recorded as the one who issued it to him. A small notation, '4,' closes out the entry, likely a tally or file mark.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 gur barley, main (standard) measure — month: "Granary-Opening" (guru7-im-du8-a) — from the storehouse (ganun) of Baba — was withdrawn (issued out). 16 gur 2 barig barley — month: "Ningirsu's New House of Antasura" — was transported (carried away) — from the garden storehouse — was withdrawn (issued out). Seed-grain, barley for the oxen to eat — (for) Diutu, chief plowman of the female workers of Baba — Enigal, the manager (nubanda), issued it out to him. 4 (notation/total mark).
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(u@c) 5(asz@c) sze gur saggal iti guru7-im-du8-a ganun ba-ba6-ta e-ta-gar 1(u@c) 6(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze iti nin-gir2-su e2 gibil an-ta-sur-ra-ka i3-lah5-a ganun kiri6-ta e-ta-gar sze-numun sze gu4-re6 gu7-de3 di-utu sag-apin geme2-ba-ba6-ka-ra en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e-na-ta-gar 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 543. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221193) — 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.