Position in chronology
BIN 08, 038
About this tablet
A very early real-estate document — a sale of a house plot — written at Isin in southern Mesopotamia in the Early Dynastic period, roughly the mid-third millennium BCE. Fifteen gur of barley (several thousand liters of grain) change hands as the price of a one-sar building plot, and the barley is received by Nin-pada, the wife of a man named Lugal-ša. A second, smaller payment of a shekel of silver and a gur of barley goes to a son of the same Lugal-ša — the customary supplementary gift paid to the seller's family so that no relative could later contest the sale. The reverse, which probably carried the witness list, is almost entirely broken away.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen gur of barley was paid as the purchase price for a house plot of one sar. Nin-pada, the wife of Lugal-ša, took delivery of the payment. In addition, one shekel of silver and one gur of barley went to KUM-tuš, a son of Lugal-ša, who acknowledged receipt. The next line begins again with 'the purchase price of...' but the rest of the reverse has flaked away, so we lose whatever followed — most likely the names of the witnesses to the deal.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineObverse 15 gur of barley, the purchase price of 1 sar of house-plot. Nin-pada, wife of Lugal-ša, im-ta-KID(?), received (it). Reverse 1 shekel of silver, 1 gur of barley — [for] KUM-tuš, son of Lugal-[ša], he received. The purchase price [of ......] (the remainder of the reverse is destroyed)
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
1(u@c) 5(asz@c) sze gur nig2-sa10 1(asz@c) e2 sar-kam nin-pa-da dam lugal-sza3 im-ta-KID? szu ba-ti 1(asz@c) ku3 gin2 1(asz@c) sze gur KUM-tusz#-[sze3] dumu lugal-[sza3] szu ba#-[ti] nig2-sa10# [x x x]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 038. 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 (P212615) — 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
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.
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.