Position in chronology
DP 034
About this tablet
A small Early Dynastic accounting tablet from southern Iraq, roughly the middle of the third millennium BCE, now in the Louvre. It lists work-gangs and their sizes alongside the foremen (ugula) responsible for them — Di-Utu, Sud-ur-sag, Ur-egal — plus a group of twenty musicians and an allotment of twelve measures of malt for brewing. Documents like this are the routine payroll and ration paperwork of a temple or palace household, the kind of record that kept large labour forces fed and accounted for. The reverse was left blank, and the tablet's edges are chipped, so several names and totals are lost.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Roster and issue record. Two junior workers; Di-Utu, foreman. Lu-ad. [Name broken] Sud-ur-sag, foreman. Twenty-five under Ur-egal, foreman. Twenty musicians, under AK. Twelve measures of malt for KA-zi-da. Two further entries are broken — one ending in -gal, and a man whose name may be Lu-di. The closing line records that the goods were delivered. The back of the tablet was never written on.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[…] 2 children (junior workers), Di-[Utu], the foreman; Lu-ad; […] Sud-ur-sag, the foreman; 25 — Ur-egal, the foreman; 20 musicians, AK; 12 (measures of) malt, KA-zi-[da]; […] gal? […]; [Lu?]-di. (uninscribed space) […] delivered. (Reverse: uninscribed; modern museum markings only — "AO 13242" and the label "XV / DP 34".)
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[x] 2(asz@c)#? dumu#-dumu# di-[utu] ugula lu2-ad [...] sud3-[ur]-sag ugula# 2(u@c) 5(asz@c) ur-e2-gal ugula 2(u@c) nar AK 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) munu4 KA-zi#-[da] [...] gal?-[...] [lu2?]-di () [ba]-DU
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — DP 034. 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: Louvre Museum, Paris, France (P010051) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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Related sources
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