Position in chronology
Nik 1, 187
About this tablet
This small clay tablet is a household accounting record from the palace administration of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler (ensi2) of the Sumerian city-state of Lagash, around 2400 BCE. It tracks ten large goats that came in from a named field, passed through the hands of an overseer named Eniggal, and were formally handed over to a goat-herder called Ur-gešbar'e. Baranamtara ran an extensive personal economic household separate from her husband's, with its own flocks, fields, and officials, and dozens of tablets like this one survive from her archive, found at Tello (ancient Girsu). It offers a glimpse of everyday bureaucratic bookkeeping — livestock moving between field, overseer, and herder — in one of the earliest documented state economies.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ten full-grown goats came in from a field known as 'the field of the erected standard.' The transfer was handled under the supervision of the overseer Eniggal. During the month of the Lisina festival, the accounting period for this transaction closed out. The goats were then handed over to Ur-gešbar'e, the goat-herder, who took charge of them. These animals belonged to Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash — part of her own private herd, recorded here with a closing tally of 3.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine10 large goats, goats that came out from the field — it is the field 'Erected-Standard' (GAN2-uri3-ru2-a) — (under) En-ig-gal, the overseer: in the month of the festival of [Lisina], the boundary/term was reached (completed). Ur-gešbar'e, the goat-herder, was given (them) / it was disbursed. Goats, the property of Baranamtara, wife of Lugalanda, ruler of Lagash. 3.
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) masz gal-gal masz asza5-ga e3-a GAN2 uri3 ru2-a-kam en-ig-gal nu-banda3 iti ezem-[li9-si4]-na-ka [za3] bi2-szu4 ur-gesz-bar-e3 sipa masz-[ke4] ba-gar masz u2-rum bara2-nam-tar-ra dam lugal-an-da ensi2 lagasz-ka 3(|ASZxDISZ@t|)
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — Nik 1, 187. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation (P221956) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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