Position in chronology
RTC 063
About this tablet
A short account from Girsu (modern Tello) in southern Iraq, written about 2350 BCE during the fifth year of Uru-inimgina, the reforming last king of the Lagash dynasty. It records jars of pig-fat (lard) measured out to five people — one of them, U'u, getting twelve jars, the others a single jar each — with the transaction carried out by an overseer named Ur-igi-amaše at the office of the land-surveyor, the official whose title literally means "man of the long measuring rope." Its interest lies in the ordinariness of it: a greasy commodity, five named individuals, a supervising official, and a date formula tying a mundane handout to a famous king.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Distribution of lard: twelve jars plus six liters to U'u; one jar and two liters to Gan-Baba; one jar each to Nin-asu, Gissu, and Dam-da-nusa. The measuring-out was done by Ur-igi-amaše, the overseer, at the surveyor's office. Filed in the fifth year of Uru-inimgina, king of Lagash.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine12 jars (and) 6 sila of pig-fat (lard): U'u. 1 jar (and) 2(?) sila: Gan-Baba. 1 (jar): Nin-asu. 1 (jar): Gissu. 1 (jar): Dam-da-nusa. Ur-igi-amaše, the overseer (nu-banda), in the house of the surveyor (the "man of the long rope") poured (it) out. (reverse / colophon) Uru-inimgina (Uru-KA-gina), king of Lagash — (year) 5.
Our translation engine — Opus 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(u@c) 2(asz@c) dug 6(asz@c) sila3 i3 szah2 [U2]-U2 1(asz@c) dug 2(asz@c)#? sila3 gan-ba-ba6 1(asz@c) nin-a-su 1(asz@c) gissu 1(asz@c) dam-da-nu-sa2 ur-igi-ama-sze3 nu-banda3 e2 lu2 esz2-gid2-ka-ka e-de2 URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz 5(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — RTC 063. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P221460) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.