Position in chronology
DP 575
About this tablet
A land-assignment record from Girsu in southern Iraq, written around 2350 BCE in the small state of Lagash. Three named plots — a subsistence tract at Ki-duru, the field called Gir-gir, and a two-bur field called "Enlil" — are handed over as maintenance land to the household staff of Ur-Baba, a palace cupbearer, by an overseer named Šubur. It is dated to the first year of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash, one of the last kings before Urukagina's famous reforms. Texts like this show how a Sumerian ruler's household paid its servants: not in wages but in fields they could work and live off.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three parcels of farmland are transferred here: a subsistence tract at Ki-duru measuring 3 bur less 2 iku (about 19 hectares), the field known as Gir-gir, and a second field called "Enlil" of 2 bur (about 13 hectares). They go to the staff attached to Ur-Baba, the cupbearer, and the handover was carried out by Šubur, the overseer. The record is dated to the first year of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 bur minus 2 iku of field — subsistence land of Ki-duru; field Gir-gir; 2 bur of field "Enlil": the men of Ur-Baba, the cupbearers — Šubur, the overseer, gave (it) to them. Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash: (year) 1.
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
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-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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