Position in chronology
Nik 1, 033
About this tablet
This is a small pillow-shaped clay tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello), part of a well-known genre of Early Dynastic III administrative field-survey texts from the household of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. Such tablets record the measurement (gan2-gid2, literally 'stretching the field-rope') of grain-bearing plowland parcels carried out under the authority of Enigal, the estate's manager (nubanda). Dozens of nearly identical texts survive from this archive, making it one of the best-documented bureaucracies of the ancient world, roughly 2400 BCE — ordinary paperwork tracking who plowed and sowed which fields for the ruling family's household.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
A field survey record: a plot of about 3 bur3 (roughly 19 hectares) sown with grain, classified as tenant plowland, is listed along with a field called Ha-hara-gur; the total area is noted and the record is entered by a scribe. Another field, that of Urum, belongs to the estate of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. Enigal, the household's manager, personally measured out these fields, with a final tally of 4 (units, likely additional bur3 or parcels) recorded at the close.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine3 bur3 field(s), grain-grown, tenant plowland (apin-la2), having 10 — field of Ha-hara-gur, its total: (by) the scribe. Field of [Urum], (of) Bara-[namtara], wife of Lugal-[an]da, [ruler] of Lagash: En-[ig-gal], the manager (nubanda), measured (the field); (total) 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
3(bur3@c) GAN2 sze mu2-a apin-la2 1(u)-tuku GAN2 ha-har-ra-gur8 gu2-bi dub-sar GAN2 [u2-rum] bara2-[nam-tar-ra] dam lugal-[an]-da [ensi2] lagasz[-ka] en-[ig-gal] nu-[banda3] mu-[gid2] 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 033. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P221740) — 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.