Position in chronology
HSS 03, 43
About this tablet
A small personnel roster from Girsu in the Sumerian state of Lagash, written around 2350 BCE during the reign of the reformer-king Urukagina (also read Uru-inimgina). It counts three workmen — each of whom bears a loyalty name built on the king's own name, such as 'Urukagina-(entrusted)-to-Enlil' — assigned to duty at the waterworks under the supervision of the scribe Lugal-ešduga. Such name-giving shows how deeply the ruler's persona penetrated everyday administration, and the tablet itself is a snapshot of how labor was tracked man by man in one of the world's earliest bureaucracies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Duty roster: three men — Urukagina-Enlile-su, Urukagina-Ningirsuke-su, and Urukagina-Nanše-su. They are the crew posted at the water installation, and they are quartered with (i.e., work under) Lugal-ešduga, the scribe. Head count: three.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (man): URU-KA-gina-Enlile-su, 1 (man): URU-KA-gina-Ningir[su]ke-su, 1 (man): URU-KA-gina-Nanše-su — they are the men who stand (in service) at the water(-works) (a-en-ra); with Lugal-ešduga, the scribe, they live (i.e., are stationed). Total: 3.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(asz@c) URU-KA#-gi-na-en-lil2-le-su 1(asz@c) URU-KA-gi-na-nin-gir2-[su]-ke4-su# 1(asz@c)# URU-KA-gi-na-nansze-su lu2# a-en-ra-gub-me lugal-esz3-du10-ga dub-sar-da e#-da#-se12# 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — HSS 03, 43. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Harvard Museum of the Ancient Near East, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (P221352) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-09-20/v8-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.