Position in chronology
DP 146
About this tablet
This is a Presargonic administrative tablet from Girsu (modern Tello), part of the large archive documenting the great household-temple economy of Lagash around the 24th century BCE. It records recurring ('sa2-du11') deliveries of emmer wheat and dark beer — the standard periodic offerings owed to a temple or institutional household — passed through the hands of a named brewer, Ili-beli, and disbursed by the steward Enšugigi from a storehouse. Tablets like this, part of the huge Lagash e2-mi2 (women's/queen's household) archive now dispersed among museums including the Louvre, let historians reconstruct the rationing and offering system of one of the earliest bureaucratic states in history.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a supply record: 22 gur and 2 barig of white emmer wheat (measured by the standard gur) covered the regular offering for two months, credited to Amar-girid. Separately, 20 gur of emmer wheat covered the regular offering of dark beer for one month, and that batch was delivered and stored as required. Ili-beli, one of the institution's brewers, was involved in receiving or processing it. The steward Enšugigi issued the goods from the storehouse known for its good order — this is entry number six in the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine22 gur 2 barig of white emmer wheat, in the gur-saggal (standard) measure: the regular offering for 2 months — (for/from) Amar-girid. 20 gur of emmer wheat: the regular offering of dark beer for 1 month, was set in its place there. Ili-beli, one of the brewers. Enšugigi, the steward, from the storehouse of good appearance, has allocated (it) — 6th (entry).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
2(u@c) 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) ziz2 babbar2 gur saggal sa2-du11 iti 2(disz@t)-kam amar-giri16 2(u@c) ziz2 sa2-du11 kas ge6 iti 1(disz@t)-a-ka ki-ba gar-ra-am6 i3-li2-be6-li2 lu2 lungax(|BIxNIG2|)-me en-szu-gi4-gi4 agrig-ge ganun igi zi mu-sze3-bar-ta e-ne-ta-gar 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 146. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220796) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.
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.