Position in chronology
BIN 08, 173
About this tablet
This is an Early Dynastic (roughly 26th–24th century BCE) real-estate sale record from Nippur, one of the oldest surviving legal contracts in the world. A donkey-herder named Ur-lugal paid a woman named Nin-gišnani a mixed price of silver, barley, pig fat, dates, and a live pig for a wall adjoining the gate of a palace complex. The tablet then records that the transaction was formally settled and that a group of named witnesses affirmed it, apparently under oath — the standard closing procedure of Sumerian property law in this period.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Ur-lugal, a man who herded donkeys, bought a section of wall next to the palace gate from a woman named Nin-gišnani. He paid her a bundle of goods as the price: some silver, about a dozen bushels of barley, roughly forty liters of pig fat, a couple of bushels of dates, and one grass-fed pig. The sale was declared settled and in order, and a man named Dudu, along with a group of other witnesses, put their names behind it — swearing an oath to confirm the deal was valid. The rest of the witness list and the exact wording of the oath are too broken to make out.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[x]+4 shekels of silver, 12 gur 1 barig barley (lidga-quality), 41 sila of pig fat, 2 gur 1 barig dates, 1 grass-fed pig: this is the purchase price of Nin-gišnani. Ur-lugal, the donkey-herder, gave (it) to her — (for) the wall of the gate of the palace. Its case was put in order (settled). Dudu, ...... ...... [......], the men of the (legal) statement — they confirmed (it under oath). The oath ...... [......]
Our translation engine — Sonnet 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
[x] 4(asz@c)#? ku3 gin2# 1(u@c) 2(asz@c) 1(barig@c) sze lid2-ga 4(u@c) 1(asz@c) i3 szah2 sila3 2(asz@c) 1(barig@c) zu2-lum gur 1(asz@c) szah2 u2 nig2-sa10 nin-gissu-na-ni-kam ur-lugal sipa ansze-ke4 i3-szi-szum2 BAD abul e2-gal#-[la-ka] di-be6 si ab-sa2 du-du x [x x] DA AN [...] ti [x] lu2 inim#-[ma]-ke4#-ne# i3-gi#?-[ne?]-esz2#? nam [...] x AN x
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIb (ca. 2500-2340 BC)) — BIN 08, 173. 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 (P212717) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative. source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-5 (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.