Position in chronology
BIN 08, 054
About this tablet
An Early Dynastic administrative field register from Mesopotamia, dating to roughly 2600–2350 BCE, recording the assignment of agricultural plots to named persons and institutions alongside each plot's associated barley allocation. Land areas are measured in iku (each roughly 3,600 square meters) and eše3 (six iku), while grain is tracked in local capacity units. The beneficiaries range from a great merchant's storehouse and a temple administrator serving as foreman, to two named land surveyors — called 'rope-stretchers' after the measuring cords they dragged across fields to calculate area — along with one surveyor's wife and a potter. The repeated presence of these professional surveyors, appearing both as the workers who measured land and as recipients of land allocations in their own right, offers a vivid glimpse into how early Mesopotamian institutions distributed agricultural resources among skilled specialists.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Four iku of field, with its barley allotment of 10+2 asz and 2 barig, belongs to the storehouse of the great merchant. Two and a half iku, with a grain allocation of 10 minus 2 barig, goes to the temple administrator Lugal-ezem, who also serves as foreman. Eight iku — one eše3 plus two additional iku — together with 40 minus 2 asz and 2 barig of barley, are assigned to the surveyors Ama-bara-si and Lugal-ildu, the rope-stretchers who measured fields. Three iku with 10+2 asz and 2 barig of barley belongs to the surveyor's household; three and a quarter iku and 10+5 asz with 2 barig go to the junior woman, the surveyor's wife. One and a half iku of field and 5 asz of barley belong to the potter Ur-TAG.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine4 iku of field — 10+2 asz, 2 barig: its barley — [belonging to] the storehouse of the great merchant. 2½ iku of field — 10 less 2 barig: barley of the man [who is] sanga Lugal-ezem, the foreman. 1 eše3 [+] 2 iku of field — 40 less 2 asz, 2 barig: barley of Ama-bara-si [and] Lugal-ildu, the rope-stretchers. 3 iku of field — 10+2 asz, 2 barig: barley — [belonging to] the household of the rope-stretcher. 3¼ iku of field — 10+5 asz, 2 barig: barley of the junior woman, wife of the rope-stretcher. 1½ iku of field — 5 asz: [barley] of Ur-TAG, the potter.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
4(iku@c) GAN2 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze-bi e2-ki dam-gar3-gal 2(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c@v) GAN2 1(u@c) la2 2(barig@c) sze lu2 sanga lugal-ezem ugula 1(esze3@c) 2(iku@c) GAN2 4(u@c) la2 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze ama-bara2-si! lugal-ildu3 lu2 esz2-gid2 3(iku@c) GAN2 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) 2(barig@c)! sze e2-lu2 lu2 esz2-gid2 3(iku@c) 1/4(iku@c@v) GAN2 1(u@c) 5(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze munus-tur dam lu2 esz2-gid2 1(iku@c) 1/2(iku@c@v) GAN2 5(asz@c) sze# ur-TAG bahar2!
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 054. 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 (P221559) — 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.
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.