Position in chronology
DP 232
About this tablet
This is a cattle-delivery record from the palace administration of Lagash (ancient Girsu), datable to the reign of Lugalanda, one of the last rulers before Uruinimgina, in the mid-24th century BCE. It documents eight yearling, pasture-fed oxen handed over from the palace herds to a named cowherd, Dingir-šešmu, with a note that one animal has not yet been formally accounted for. Thousands of such tablets survive from the archive of the Lagash palace household, meticulously tracking livestock, grain, and labor — this one is a small but typical entry in that vast bureaucratic record.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eight yearling oxen, raised on pasture, were delivered from the palace of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. These returned calves were handed over to Dingir-šešmu, the cowherd. Of the herdsmen's animals, one head has not yet been struck off the books — it remains an open balance in the account.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine8 oxen, of one year (age), grass-fed (pasture-raised) oxen: Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash, to the palace, as returned calves, to Dingir-šešmu, the cowherd, he gave. 1 (head), of their cowherds, has not been withdrawn (remains outstanding).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
1(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) gu4 mu 1(disz@t) gu4 u2-rum lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka e2-gal-la amar szu-a i3-gi4-a dingir-szesz-mu unu3-ra e-na-szum2 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|) unu3-be2-ne nu-ta-zi
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 232. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220882) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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.