Position in chronology
DP 262
About this tablet
This is a short administrative-legal memorandum from the palace archive at Girsu (ancient Tello), dating to the reign of Urukagina, the reforming king of Lagash (24th century BCE). It records a matter involving two wool-bearing sheep and a shepherd named En-DU, who was formally made to swear an oath — a standard Early Dynastic procedure for establishing accountability over livestock. Queen Sasa, Urukagina's wife, who is well documented elsewhere managing textile and flock administration, is shown here personally directing that animals be returned to the palace, after which further sheep were issued. It is a small but vivid window into the everyday legal machinery surrounding one of history's earliest reforming rulers and his queen.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This tablet notes two wool sheep, recorded in the month called "Sheep-for-Barley," tied to barley from the canal of the god Ningirsu. The shepherd En-DU, who was in charge of the wool flock, was required to take a formal oath — most likely to settle a question about the animals in his care. Queen Sasa, wife of King Urukagina of Lagash, then had the sheep brought back to the palace, and afterward a further group of pasture sheep was issued out. The record closes with the authority of Urukagina, king of Lagash, as entry number one.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine2 wool sheep (rams). Month: "Sheep-for-Barley" — barley of the canal/watercourse of Ningirsu. En-DU, shepherd of the wool sheep, was made to swear an oath (lit. "the peg was driven in for him"). Sasa, wife of Urukagina, king of Lagash, had (them) returned to the palace. The u2-rum sheep were allotted/disbursed. Urukagina, king of Lagash. 1.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
2(asz@c) udu siki iti udu-sze3 sze a nin-gir2-su-ka-ka en-DU sipa udu siki-ka-da na ba-da-ri sa6-sa6 dam URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz-ka-ke4 e2-gal-la szu-a bi2-gi4 udu u2-rum ba-ba6 URU-KA-gi-na lugal lagasz 1(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 262. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220912) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-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.
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.