Position in chronology
DP 267
About this tablet
A short administrative receipt from Girsu in southern Iraq, from the archive of the 'Women's House' — the household estate run by the queen of Lagash around 2350 BCE. The perfumer Il returns ten jugs of scented oil to the institution, and Eniggal, the well-known overseer who appears in hundreds of these tablets, decants it into storage. It is a snapshot of luxury-goods bookkeeping: even perfumed oil moved through the same meticulous accounting as barley and fish.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten jugs of scented oil have come back in, delivered by Il, the perfumer who processed them; he has formally handed them over to the administration. This happened in the month 'when the oxen are yoked.' Eniggal, the overseer, decanted the oil at the Women's House. Filed in year 4 of the reign.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse: 10 jugs of aromatic (scented) oil — conveyor: Il, its perfumer — he returned it into (the administration's) hand. Month "when the oxen are yoked(?)" (gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a): Eniggal, the overseer, poured it out in the Women's House (e2-munus). Year 4.
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
1(u@c) dug i3-ir-a giri3 il2 i3-ra2-ra2-be2 szu-a bi2-gi4 iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2-munus-a i3-de2 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 267. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220917) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
Related tablets
Related sources
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