Position in chronology
DP 103
About this tablet
A small legal-administrative tablet from Girsu (modern Tello) in southern Iraq, written about 2350 BCE for the household of Sasa, queen of Lagash and wife of the reforming king Urukagina (Uru-inimgina). It records a settlement over a one-year-old animal in the charge of a herdsman: two men were held answerable, and the animal's value — ten shekels of silver — was paid back into the queen's own hand inside the palace. It comes from the great É-mí archive, the estate of the queen, one of the richest bodies of everyday documentation surviving from the Early Dynastic period, and it is dated to the first year of Urukagina's reign.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One yearling animal, of the "dun" type, was in the charge of the cowherd Dingir-šešmu. Ningirsu-lumu, along with Dal-mušen, was formally held to account for it under oath. The animal's assessed value came to ten shekels of silver, and that sum was handed back in the palace, directly into the hand of Queen Sasa, wife of Urukagina, ruler of Lagash. Dated to year one of the reign.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 gir-animal, one year old, a gir of the "dun" (kind/place) — Dingir-šešmu: he is the cowherd. Ningirsu-lumu, together with Dal-mušen, was put under admonition (oath) in the matter. Its silver: 10 shekels. To Sasa, wife of Uru-inimgina (Urukagina), ruler of Lagash, in the palace he returned it into her hand. (Year) 1.
Our translation engine — Opus 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) gir mu 1(disz@t) gir dun-a dingir-szesz-mu unu3-kam nin-gir2-su-lu2-mu dal-muszen-da na ba-da-ri ku3-bi 1(u@c) gin2 sa6-sa6 dam URU-KA-gi-na ensi2 lagasz-ka-ra e2-gal-la szu-na i3-ni-gi4 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 103. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220753) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-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.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.