Position in chronology
DP 575
About this tablet
This is a pre-Sargonic administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash), dating to the reign of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash in the mid-24th century BCE. It records the allotment of two parcels of farmland — a 'wet-ground' subsistence plot known as the Girgir field and a second field called 'the field of Enlil' — granted to a group of cupbearers (sagi) attached to the household of Ur-Baba, with the transfer handled by an overseer named Šubur. Tablets like this one belonged to the large archive of the Baba temple estate at Girsu, one of the best-documented bureaucracies of the ancient world, showing how the state paid its dependent workers in land rather than wages.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A tract of farmland measuring 3 bur3 minus 2 iku — a subsistence plot of low-lying, well-watered land known as the 'Girgir field' — along with a second field of 2 bur3 called 'the field of Enlil,' was granted to the cupbearers serving under Ur-Baba. Šubur, the estate's overseer, handed over the allotment on behalf of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. The record is filed as entry number 1.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3(bur3) less 2(iku) GAN2 — šuku ki-duru5 (a “wet-ground” subsistence allotment), the field (named) Girgir; 2(bur3) GAN2, the field of Enlil. The men of Ur-Baba, the cupbearers (sagi): Šubur, the overseer (nu-banda3), gave (it) to them. Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of Lagash. 1.
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
3(bur3@c) la2 2(iku@c) GAN2 szuku ki-duru5 GAN2 GIR2@g-GIR2@g 2(bur3@c) GAN2 en-lil2 lu2 ur-ba-ba6 sagi-ke4-ne szubur! nu-banda3 mu-ne-szum2 lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 575. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221225) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.