Position in chronology
BIN 08, 038
About this tablet
A property sale record from ancient Isin in southern Iraq, dating to the Early Dynastic period, roughly 2600–2350 BCE. Fifteen gur of barley — a substantial quantity — is paid as the purchase price for a house-plot of one sar (about 36 square metres). The payment is distributed between two members of the same family: Nin-pada, wife of Lugal-ša, and KUM-tuš, son of Lugal-ša, each formally acknowledging receipt. Documents like this reveal that private property sales with named parties and divided family payments were already a matter of careful written record thousands of years before comparable legal traditions appeared elsewhere.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Fifteen gur of barley — the agreed purchase price — was paid for a one-sar house plot. Nin-pada, wife of Lugal-ša, collected her portion according to the written record. Separately, one shekel of silver and one gur of barley went to KUM-tuš, son of the same Lugal-ša, who also formally received his share. The final line, which would have recorded the full purchase price for a further item, is too damaged to read.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine15 gur of barley — purchase price for 1 house of 1 sar — it is. Nin-pada, wife of Lugal-ša, who drew [it] from the [clay] tablet [?] — received. 1 shekel of silver, 1 gur of barley — KUM-tuš-[ša3?], son of Lugal-[ša], received. Purchase price of [x x x]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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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.
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.