Position in chronology
DP 151
About this tablet
This is a barley-ration account from the household administration of Sasa, wife of Urukagina, the last king of the first dynasty of Lagash (mid-24th century BCE), whose capital was Girsu (modern Tello). The steward Enshugigi disbursed grain from the granary of the temple-estate of the goddess Baba to different categories of dependent workers — ration-plot holders, porters, blind laborers, and craftsmen — with running totals carefully tallied at the top and bottom. Hundreds of such texts survive from the queen's household archive; they are prized by historians because they reveal, in granular detail, how a major Sumerian temple-and-palace economy fed and organized its workforce, and because Urukagina's reign is associated with early social 'reforms' that these very records help document.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Here is the tally: 67 gur of barley (minus 2 ban2), the standard gur measure — that's the barley rations for everyone holding a ration allotment. Of that, 29 gur, 1 barig, and 2 ban2 went to the porters, the blind workers, and the craftsmen, each accounted for on their own separate records. Another 42 gur, 1 barig, 2 ban2 was set aside as the regular grain issue, with a bit extra on top. Add it all up and the grand total comes to 138 gur, 2 ban2 of barley — rations and allocations paid out of the granary belonging to the House of Baba, this being the next installment in the series. Enshugigi, the household steward, handed out this grain on behalf of Sasa, wife of King Urukagina of Lagash. This record is dated to year 6, the 8th such disbursement.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineTotal: 67 gur less 2 ban2 (in) the sagal-standard gur — barley rations for the people holding ration-plots (šuku-holders). 29 gur, 1 barig, 2 ban2: barley rations for the carriers, the blind, (and) the craftsmen, (recorded) on separate individual tablets. 42 gur, 1 barig, 2 ban2: barley allocated as the regular delivery, its additional portion existing besides. Grand total: 138 gur, 2 ban2 of barley, in the sagal-standard gur — barley rations, barley allocations, of the House of Baba, from the granary of the House of Baba, the (next) following (disbursement). Enshugigi, the steward, disbursed it. Sasa, wife of Urukagina, king of Lagash. Year 6, the 8th (occasion) — so it was.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
szu-nigin2 1(gesz2@c) 7(asz@c) la2 2(ban2@c) gur saggal sze-ba lu2 szuku dab5-ba-ne 3(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze-ba il2 igi-nu-du8 gesz-kin-ti sza3-dub didli 4(u@c) 2(asz@c) 1(barig@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gar sa2-du11 bar-bi gal2 gu2-an-sze3 2(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) 2(ban2@c) sze gur saggal sze-ba sze gar e2 ba-ba6-ka guru7 e2 ba-ba6-ke4 us2-sa-ta en-szu-gi4-gi4 agrig-ge e-ne-ba sa6-sa6 dam URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz-ka 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|) 8(disz@t) ba-am6
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 151. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220801) — 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.