Position in chronology
JCS 46, 011
About this tablet
This small pillow-shaped tablet is an administrative record from Girsu (ancient Tello), part of Lagash, dating to the Early Dynastic IIIb period (roughly the 24th century BCE). It belongs to the well-known household archive of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of Lagash — one of the earliest and best-documented archives of an elite woman's economic administration anywhere in the ancient world. The tablet tallies sheep and their wool, with a silver value of 5 shekels assessed per animal, the kind of routine bookkeeping that kept track of the palace's livestock and textile resources.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet logs livestock: four sheep with dry, sheared wool are credited to a man named Nigar-mud, and one sheep is credited to Ur-Uru'a, who holds the title of governor. Other sheep, whose wool had been sheared on shearing day, were set aside, and silver — five shekels for each animal — was charged against them, recorded as being placed 'on their necks,' meaning debited to their account. The entry is filed under the authority of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, governor of Lagash, and dated to year 4 of the administration.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 sheep, dry(-fleece) wool — (for/from) Nigar-mud; 1 sheep — Ur-Uru'a, the governor; sheep whose wool was sheared on shearing day, set aside at the edge/boundary; silver, 5 shekels each, was placed against their necks (charged to their account). Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, governor of Lagash. Year 4.
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
4(asz@c) udu siki ha-ad nigar-mud 1(asz@c) udu# ur#-uri3#-[ru2]-a ensi2-ke4# udu siki# u4# ur4-ra# za3 szu4#-[a] ku3 5(asz@c) gin2-ta gu2-ne-ne-a e-ne-gar# bara2-nam#-[tar]-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — JCS 46, 011. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: private: Kilmer, A., Tucson, Arizona, USA (P221753) — 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.