Position in chronology
Nik 1, 215
About this tablet
This small round clay object is not a tablet in the usual sense but a docket — a label meant to be affixed to (or accompany) a woven reed basket that held a group of cuneiform tablets. It catalogues records of cattle inspections and counts kept in the household administration of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of the city-state of Lagash, one of the best-documented royal women of the Early Dynastic period. The reverse of the object even preserves the impression of the basket's wickerwork, physical evidence that this docket was literally pressed onto the container it labeled. It is a small but vivid trace of how a Sumerian palace filed its paperwork nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a filing label for a basket of records. It reads: 'Basket of tablets — records of cows that have been inspected and counted, belonging to Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, the ruler of Lagash. [Also included:] records of inspected and counted cows belonging to the young stock (calves). On hand: 6 (tablets/records).' In short, it's the ancient equivalent of a folder tab, telling the palace archivist that this particular basket held six documents concerning cattle inspections in the queen's household.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineBasket-of-tablets: Cows, inspected (and) counted (records), (of) Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash; cows, inspected (and) counted (records), of the children (young stock); present/on hand: 6.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
pisan-dub ab2 gurum2-ma szid-da bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka ab2 gurum2-ma szid-da dumu-dumu-ne e-da-gal2 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 215. 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 (P221984) — 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.