Position in chronology
DP 200
About this tablet
This is an administrative-religious record from the household archive of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of the city-state of Lagash around 2400 BCE, found at Girsu (modern Tello). It logs sheep allotted for a temple ceremony tied to the sighting of the new moon at a shrine in the 'holy city,' overseen by a livestock official named Enku whose title, kurušda, means 'fattener' — the person responsible for raising animals to sacrificial or table condition. Texts like this one are part of a large cache documenting how a queen's court managed cultic offerings and animal resources, giving historians a rare, granular view of Sumerian temple economy nearly 4,500 years ago.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
One sheep was set aside for Mesandu, and another for the goddess Ninšubur, both charged to Baranamtara's household accounts. When the month of the Lugal-Uru festival ended, Baranamtara went to the shrine of the new moon in the holy city, where the customary rite was carried out and the sheep were offered up and eaten. Enku, the man in charge of fattening the livestock, handled the delivery. In total, four sheep were recorded for this occasion.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 sheep — for Mesandu; 1 sheep — for Ninšubur; (from) Baranamtara. When the month "Festival of Lugal-Uru(b)" was completed, and she went to the house of the new crescent moon of the holy city, the ritual wood was touched (the rite was performed); the sheep were consumed (as offerings). Enku, the livestock-fattener (delivered them) — total: 4.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(asz@c) udu mes-an-du 1(asz@c) udu nin-szubur bara2-nam-tar-ra iti ezem lugal-uru11-ka til-la-ba e2 u4-sakar iri ku3-ga-sze3 e-gen-na-a gesz be2-tag udu gu7-a en-ku3 kuruszda-kam 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 200. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220850) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.