Position in chronology
HSS 03, 43
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu, one of thousands of clay records kept by the temple bureaucracy of Lagash under the ruler Urukagina (also read Uru-inimgina). It tallies three men whose personal names are built from the king's own name combined with a god's name — Enlil, Ningirsu, and Nanše — a naming pattern common for dependents attached to a ruler's household. The tablet notes that these men were assigned to the charge of an individual called A-en, and records that a man named Lugal-ešdugana stayed with a scribe, with a final tally of three. It is the kind of unglamorous bookkeeping — tracking laborers and dependents by name and number — that made the Lagash state's economy function.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Three men are listed by name — Urukagina-Enlile-su, Urukagina-Ningirsuke-su, and Urukagina-Nanše-su — each counted as one unit. They are noted as being under the authority or service of a man called A-en. A further man, Lugal-ešdugana, is recorded as staying together with the scribe. The record closes with a total count of three.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (each): Uru-KA-gina-Enlil-le-su 1 (each): Uru-KA-gina-Ningirsu-ke4-su 1 (each): Uru-KA-gina-Nanše-su — men who stand (in service) for A-en; Lugal-ešdugana, with the scribe, resided/remained — 3 (total).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
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-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.