Position in chronology
BIN 08, 024
About this tablet
A surveyor's worksheet from the Sargonic period (c. 2300–2150 BCE): the measurements of a long, narrow field and the amount of barley expected from it. The scribe records the two short ends (20½ and 22 rods) and the two long sides (330 rods each), converts them into an area of just under four bur3 — about 70 iku, roughly 25 hectares — then multiplies by a fixed rate of one gur and one barig of barley per iku to reach a grand total of 87 gur 2 barig. A man named Amar-ezem is named at the end, presumably the holder or the official responsible. Despite the catalogue's 'astronomy' label, this is a practical land-and-yield calculation, the kind of arithmetic that underpinned Mesopotamian estate administration.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The field measures 20½ rods across at one end and 22 at the other, and 330 rods down each of its long sides. That works out to an area of four bur3 minus two iku — seventy iku in all. Reckoned at the standard rate of one gur and one barig of barley for every iku, the field should yield 87 gur and 2 barig of grain. The account is entered under the name Amar-ezem; the sign that follows his name cannot be read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine1. 20 1/2 (nindan) — the short side; 22 (nindan) — 2. 330 (nindan) — the long side; 330 (nindan) — 3. its field: 4 bur3 less 2 iku; 4. per 1 iku of field, 1 gur 1 barig of barley each — 5. its barley: 87 gur 2 barig. 6. Amar-ezem [...].
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
2(u) 1/2(disz) sag 2(u) 2(disz) 5(gesz2) 3(u) us2 5(gesz2) 3(u) GAN2-bi 4(bur3@c) la2 2(iku@c) 1(iku@c) GAN2-bi 1(asz@c) 1(barig@c) sze gur#-ta sze-bi 1(gesz2@c) 2(u@c) 7(asz@c) 2(barig@c) gur amar-ezem x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)) — BIN 08, 024. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Nies Babylonian Collection, Yale Babylonian Collection, New Haven, Connecticut, USA (P212605) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-09-20/v8-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.