Position in chronology
DP 269
About this tablet
This small clay tablet belongs to the well-known archive of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash around the 24th century BCE. Baranamtara ran a large institutional household — the 'house of the woman' — with its own staff, storehouses, and delivery officials, and this tablet is a routine receipt recording eleven jars of scented oil brought in by an official called Enšu, then logged into the central storehouse. Texts like this one are some of the earliest detailed administrative records we have, showing how elite women in early Mesopotamian cities managed real economic institutions in their own right.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Eleven jars of scented oil were brought in by the official Enšu, who held the title ka-šagan. This happened in the month called 'when the oxen are led out to pasture,' as part of an account connected to the goddess Nanše's household, and the delivery was recorded as repaid or settled. The transaction was overseen by Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash, and the oil was placed into the central storehouse. The entry is logged as the sixth such delivery recorded.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine11 jars of scented oil (i3-ir-a) — via Enšu, the ka-šagan-official. Month: 'when the oxen are led out (to pasture)' (Gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a). Of (the temple/household of) Nanše — it was repaid/returned. Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ensi2 of Lagash: into the storehouse (e2-nig2-gur11-ra) it was delivered — 6 (th entry).
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
1(u@c) 1(asz@c) dug i3-ir-a giri3 en-szu ka-szagan-ke4 iti gu4-ra2-bi2-mu2-a nansze-ka szu-a bi2-gi4 bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka e2-nig2-gur11-ra i3-kux(DU) 6(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 269. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220919) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.