Position in chronology
Nik 1, 168
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic IIIb administrative tablet from Girsu (ancient Tello), part of the archive of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash — one of the best-documented women of the third millennium BCE. It records a 'mashdaria' offering, a customary gift or tribute of livestock, sent by Ninbur (wife of a local surveyor) to Bara-namtara during the sheep-shearing month, physically delivered by a herdsman named Enku who worked as an animal-fattener. Dozens of such tablets survive from her household archive, giving historians a rare window into the daily economic life and social obligations surrounding an elite Sumerian woman roughly 4,400 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The beginning of the record is broken. What survives says: this is a customary gift-offering. Ninbur, the wife of the surveyor, sent it to Bara-namtara. It arrived during the month of sheep-shearing and was delivered into her hands. Enku, the animal-fattener, was the one who brought it — two head (of livestock).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[...] ... (broken) [maš-da]-re-a ("mašdaria"-offering): [Nin]-bur, wife of the rope-stretcher (surveyor), (for) Bara-namtara. Month: "Sheep-shearing" (iti ga₂-udu-ur₄-ra). Was delivered to her. En-ku₃, the fattener — carried (it): 2 (head).
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
[...] x [masz-da]-re-a [nin]-bur dam lu2 esz2! gid2 bara2-nam-tar-ra iti ga2-udu-ur4-ra-ka mu-na-kux(DU) en-ku3 kuruszda-e ba-de6 2(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 168. 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 (P221937) — 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.