Position in chronology
RTC 037
About this tablet
A delivery receipt from the city of Girsu, around 2360 BCE, from the household archive of Bara-namtara — the queen of Lagash, wife of the ruler Lugal-anda, who ran her own large economic estate. A freshwater fisherman named U-du has brought in a load of dried, split fish and bundles of fish spawn during the month when wool rations were handed out, and the estate's overseer En-iggal booked the goods into the storehouse. Tablets like this one show a working economy managed in the queen's name, with named workers and officials accountable for every delivery.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Received: two talents (about 60 kilos) of split adartun-fish and five bundles of agargara fish roe. U-du, the freshwater fisherman, delivered them during the month of the wool distribution. En-iggal, the overseer, checked the goods into the storehouse. Logged to the estate of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugal-anda, ruler of Lagash. Year 4 of his reign.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 talents of split adartun-fish, 5 bundles of agargara-fish (spawn, packed in rushes) — U-du, the fisherman of the sweet waters, in the month of the wool distribution brought (them). En-iggal, the overseer, into the storehouse delivered (them). (For) Bara-namtara, wife of Lugal-anda, ruler of Lagash. 4th (year).
Our translation engine — Fable 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
2(asz@c) gu2 a-dar-tun2 dar-ra 5(asz@c) sa |ZI&ZI.SZE3| agargara u2-du szu-ku6 a du10-ga-ke4 iti siki-ba-a mu-de6 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2-nig2#-[gur11]-ra-ka i3-kux(DU) bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 037. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221434) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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