Position in chronology
DP 335
About this tablet
This small cushion-shaped clay tablet from Girsu (ancient Lagash) is a short ration list from about 2400 BCE, recording date-fruit allocations to seven fishermen. It was drawn up under the authority of En-iggal, a manager (nubanda) well known from the Lagash temple archives of that era, with one of the fishermen, Gu'u, also serving as foreman over a subgroup of three. Tablets like this are the bookkeeping of a large temple household, tracking exactly who received food rations and under whose supervision — the everyday paperwork that let a Bronze Age institution feed its workforce.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
This is a ration voucher: seven named fishermen — Lugal-gešbur, Šanugal, E-igara-su, Anukuš, Uršu-illa, Lugal-igi, and Gu'u — are each credited with one allotment. The clerk totals it up: seven people in all, listed on this tablet, and notes that they are fishermen being given date-fruit as rations. The manager En-iggal signed off on the account, and it was formally recorded. Finally, Gu'u is named again as foreman, responsible for a group of three among the seven.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1 (unit) — Lugal-gešbur 1 (unit) — Šanugal 1 (unit) — E-igara-su 1 (unit) — Anukuš 1 (unit) — Uršu-illa 1 (unit) — Lugal-igi 1 (unit) — Gu'u Total: 4 + 3 = 7 persons (on this) tablet. They are fishermen, (recipients of) dates. En-iggal, the manager (nubanda). For this account it was written (registered). Gu'u, its foreman: 3.
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(asz@c) lugal-gesz-bur2 1(disz@t) sza3-nu-gal2 1(asz@c) e2-i3-gara2-su3 1(disz@t) a2-nu-kusz2 1(asz@c) ur-szu-il2-la 1(disz@t) lugal-igi 1(asz@c) gu-u2 szu-nigin2 4(disz@t) 3(disz@t) sag dub szu-ku6 zu2-lum-ma-me en-ig-gal nu-banda3 mu-bi-sze3 e-sar gu-u2 ugula-bi 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — DP 335. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P220985) — 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.