Position in chronology
Nik 1, 209
About this tablet
This is a small clay administrative record, cushion-shaped and covered on every face with cuneiform, from the palace archive of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash, found at ancient Girsu (Tello) and now in the State Hermitage Museum. It records a single young ox delivered as a 'mašdaria' offering — a customary gift or due — by Ur-šugalama, the chief cupbearer, to Baranamtara herself, with the palace overseer Eniggal certifying the transaction and a herdsman named Ur-dumuzi taking charge of the animal. Hundreds of such texts survive from this archive around 2400 BCE, giving historians an extraordinarily detailed picture of the everyday running of a Sumerian queen's household.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One young ox — described as a thin or immature calf — was handed over as a customary gift-offering. It came from Ur-šugalama, who held the office of chief cupbearer, and it was delivered to Baranamtara, daughter of a man named Ituda. This happened in the month of the Festival of Baba. The overseer Eniggal checked and certified the transaction, and the animal was then placed in the care of Ur-dumuzi, a herdsman responsible for raised calves. A tally mark of '4' closes the record, likely a running count within this batch of entries.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 ox — a young, thin calf — (as) mašdaria-offering (of): Ur-šugalama, the chief cupbearer (sagi-mah), for Baranamtara, daughter of Ituda, he delivered. Month: "Festival of Baba." Eniggal, the overseer (nubanda), verified (it) at the boundary (za3 bi2-šu4). Ur-dumuzi, herdsman of the reared calves — it was placed (in his charge). 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
1(asz@c) gu4 amar sig masz-da-re-a ur-szu-ga-lam-ma sagi-mah-kam bara2-nam-tar-ra dumu munus i3-tu-da-a mu-na-kux(DU) iti ezem-ba-ba6-ka en-ig-gal nu-banda3 za3 bi2-szu4 ur-dumu-zi sipa amar ru-ga-ke4 ba-gar 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 209. 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 (P221978) — 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.