Position in chronology
Nik 1, 201
About this tablet
This small pillow-shaped clay tablet is a short administrative receipt from the palace archive of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of the city-state of Lagash, around 2400 BCE. It records the transfer of livestock — a female donkey and a quantity of goats owed as a deficit — passing through the hands of the herder Ur-dumuzi, the overseer En-iggal, and finally the herder En-ku, under the authority of the queen's household. Texts like this one belong to a very large, well-studied group of Early Dynastic administrative tablets from Girsu (Tello) that track the palace's herds, rations, and personnel in minute, formulaic detail — giving historians an extraordinarily granular picture of a Sumerian court economy nearly 4,500 years old.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One female donkey of the szagan herd-type is recorded. Ur-dumuzi, the goat-herder, delivered the goats that were still owed (a deficit balance) to [a person or place whose name is now broken away]. The overseer En-iggal reviewed and settled the account. The animal was then handed over to En-ku, another herder in the szagan-donkey division. This transaction was carried out on behalf of [Bara-namtara], wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash — the rest of the closing line, presumably naming Lagash more fully or adding a further note, is broken off.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit): 1 female donkey (eme₃) of the szagan-class (herd) Ur-dumuzi, the herder of the nanny-goats (ud₅) — the outstanding/deficit goats (ud₅ la₂-a) he brought to [...]. En-iggal, the overseer, set the boundary (i.e., settled/confirmed the account). To En-ku, the herder of the szagan(-donkeys), he gave (it). [Bara-namtara], wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi₂) of Lagash [...].
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
1(asz@c) eme3 szaganx(AMA) ur-dumu-zi sipa ud5-da-ke4 ud5 la2-a [x] e-sze3-de6 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 za3 bi2-szu4 en-ku4 sipa szaganx(AMA)-ra e-na-szum2 [bara2-nam-tar-ra] dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-[ka x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 201. 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 (P221970) — 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.