Position in chronology
DP 271
About this tablet
This is a small Early Dynastic administrative tablet from Girsu (about 2400 BCE), recording the issue of jars of ghee (clarified butter-fat, called 'princely oil') from a central storehouse. Part of the oil goes to the shepherds who tend the nanny-goats, evidently for greasing or treating skins, and part is set aside from the 'Women's House' — the household administered by Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. Bara-namtara is a well-documented historical figure who managed an extensive royal household economy at Girsu, and tablets like this one are the everyday bookkeeping of that operation — proof that queens in third-millennium Mesopotamia ran substantial institutional estates.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The storehouse released ten jars of ghee, minus four sila, for the household accounts. Separately, four jars of ghee went out to the shepherds who look after the nanny-goats — oil meant to be poured out and rubbed in, worked into the material repeatedly, evidently for treating skins or similar goods. The transaction was charged against the Women's House, the estate of Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda the ruler of Lagash; the allotment was recorded as set aside for her, entry number three.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10 jars minus 4 sila of princely oil (ghee) — from the storehouse (e2-nig2-gur11) — was brought out. 4 jars of princely oil (ghee) — for the shepherds of the nanny-goats — to be poured out, to be smeared with fat, carried, to be rubbed in repeatedly — (for) Bara-namtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash — from the Women's House was set aside for her. 3 (entry/total).
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
1(u@c) dug la2 4(asz@c) sila3 i3 nun e2-nig2-gur11-ta e-ta-e3 4(asz@c) dug i3 nun sipa ud5-ke4-ne i3-de2 i3-ir-a ra2-de3 il2 i3-ra2-ra2-ra bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka-ke4 e2-munus-ta e-na-ta-gar 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 271. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220921) — 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.