Position in chronology
DP 273
About this tablet
This is a small clay administrative tablet from the city-state of Lagash (modern Tello) in southern Iraq, dating to the Early Dynastic period, roughly the 24th century BCE. It records an inspection, ordered by the ruler En-entarzi, of dairy goods — jars of cow butter-fat and measures of cheese or curd — held in the palace storerooms, with one portion earmarked for 'the wife' (likely the ruler's household) and another tied to a named individual. Tablets like this, part of the famous archive of Lagash palace administration, show us the everyday bookkeeping of a Sumerian temple-state economy: livestock products tracked, weighed, and periodically audited by royal officials.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The palace received 5 jars of cow butter-fat and 1 gur, 1 barig of cheese, set aside for the ruler's wife. A further 4 jars of butter-fat and 1 measure of cheese went to (or were recorded under) a man named Mesagnudi. Altogether that comes to 9 jars of cow butter-fat and 2 gur, 1 barig of cheese — the dairy yield of the herd. This account was checked and confirmed in the palace by En-entarzi, governor of Lagash; the inspection is noted as the fourth of its kind.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 jars of cow butter-fat, deposited/placed; 1 gur (saggal-measure), 1 barig of cheese/curd — for the wife (nam-dam); 4 jars of butter-fat, 1 (measure) of cheese: Mesagnudi; Total: 10 minus 1 (= 9) jars of cow butter-fat, 2 gur (saggal-measure), 1 barig of cheese/curd — butter-fat of the cows, the yield/produce. En-entarzi, governor of Lagash — in the palace, its inspection was carried out: 4th (occasion).
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
5(asz@c) dug i3 ab2 se3-ga 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) ga'ar gur saggal nam-dam 4(asz@c) dug i3 1(asz@c) ga'ar me-sag3-nu-di szu-nigin2 1(u@c) la2 1(asz@c) dug i3 ab2 2(asz@c) 1(barig@c) ga'ar gur saggal i3 ab2 u2-rum en-en3-tar-zi ensi2 lagasz-ke4 e2-gal-la gurum2-bi e-ak 4(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 273. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220923) — 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.