Position in chronology
Nik 1, 263
About this tablet
This small clay tablet is an everyday accounting slip from the household of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of the city-state of Lagash, around 2350 BCE. It records a delivery of oil — one jar plus a fractional measure — brought back or repaid by a cattle-manager named Urdu, and checked or authorized by the overseer En-iggal, a well-known administrator in this archive. The oil was poured out in the 'women's house,' the domestic-economic wing of the queen's estate, during a month named for a sheep offering to the goddess Nanše. Tablets like this one are part of one of the largest surviving archives of early bureaucratic record-keeping in human history, the so-called 'Bara-namtara archive' from Girsu.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a receipt: one jar of oil, measuring 8 and a third sila, was returned or handed back by Urdu, who managed cattle, and the transaction was signed off by the overseer En-iggal. It happened during the month named for Nanše's sheep offering. The oil was poured out at the women's house — part of the palace household run by Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, the ruler of Lagash. The tablet ends with a small numeral, '3,' likely a docket or tally mark closing out the entry.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 jar (dug), 8 1/3 sila3 of oil (i3) — Urdu(-DU6), the cattle-manager (šuš3), returned into hand (šu-a bi2-gi4). En-iggal, the overseer (nu-banda3, official in charge). Month: 'sheep-for-the-eating-of-Nanše' (iti udu-še3-še-a-nanše-ka). In the women's house (e2-munus-a) it was poured out (i3-de2). Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of Lagaš. 3.
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
1(asz@c) dug 8(disz@t) [sila3] igi 3(disz@t)-gal2 [i3] [ur]-du6 szusz3 szu-a bi2-gi4 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 iti udu-sze3-sze-a-nansze-ka e2-munus-a i3-de2 bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 263. 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 (P222032) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
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.