Position in chronology
DP 306
About this tablet
This small clay tablet, one of thousands of presargonic administrative records found at Girsu (ancient Lagash) in southern Iraq, logs a delivery of ten fish. A fisherman named Lugal-šala-tuku, working the sea/marsh fisheries under the temple economy of the goddess Nanše, brought in the catch, and the official En-iggal — a well-known manager (nubanda) attested on many Lagash tablets from this era — oversaw its transfer into the é-mí, the 'Women's House,' the household economy of the ruling family's consort. Tablets like this one, dated by a local festival month rather than a numbered year, formed the backbone of a sophisticated bureaucratic accounting system nearly 4,500 years old.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten fish — packed in a dusu-basket — were recorded during the month of the 'Festival of Barley-Eating' of the goddess Nanše. The fisherman Lugal-šala-tuku, who worked the sea fisheries, brought the fish in, and the manager En-iggal saw to it that they were delivered to the Women's House. This is entry (or tablet) number three.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 10 sumaš (fish) 2. — fish, (it is) a dusu-basket (of them) 3. Month: 'Festival, barley-eating 4. of Nanše' — 5. Lugal-šala-tuku, 6. the fisherman of the sea, 7. brought (it). 8. En-iggal, 9. the manager (nubanda), 10. into the Women's House (é-mí) 11. it was delivered (placed in hand). 12. 3 (entry/tablet count).
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) sumasz ku6 dusu-kam iti ezem sze gu7 nansze-ka lugal-sza3-la2-tuku szu-ku6 ab-ba-ke4 mu-de6 en-ig-gal nu-banda3 e2-munus-a szu-a bi2-gi4 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 306. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220956) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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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.