Position in chronology
WF 038
About this tablet
A land sale contract from Early Dynastic Šuruppak (modern Fara, Iraq), written around 2600–2500 BCE — one of the earliest documented real-estate transactions in human history. A field of roughly one eše (perhaps two to two and a half hectares) was sold for eleven shekels of silver plus a large quantity of barley committed as a secured payment. The tablet names the seller by patronym and social rank, lists several family members whose consent was customarily required, records a single witness, and closes with the designation of the buyer. Fara-period land sales like this reveal that formal property law, written contracts, and a silver-based pricing system were already mature institutions in southern Mesopotamia centuries before the famous law codes.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The purchase price for this field was eleven shekels of silver, with a further five gur and two barig of barley committed as a secured payment. The field itself measured one eše — roughly two to two and a half hectares. The seller was a man of high standing, son of Sud-da-zi; also consenting to the sale were An-na-šum₂ and Lu₂-na-nam, the latter his brother, likewise of notable rank. A man named GAM-GAM served as witness, and the buyer — unnamed in the surviving text — completed the transaction.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine5 asz 2 barig of barley — loan, [now] committed; 11 shekels of silver — purchase price of the field. 1 eše₃ — that field. [Seller,] eminent [person], son of Sud-da-zi; An-na-šum₂; Lu₂-na-nam, [his] brother, eminent [person]. Witness: GAM-GAM. The buyer.
Our translation engine — Sonnet 4.6. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Transliteration
5(asz@c) 2(barig@c) sze ur5 lid2-ga 1(u@c) 1(asz@c) ku3 gin2 sa10 GAN2 1(esze3@c) GAN2-bi nam-mah dumu sud3-da-zi an-na-szum2 lu2-na-nam szesz nam-mah lu2 ki-inim GAM-GAM lu2 sa10 ak
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (ED IIIa (ca. 2600-2500 BC)) — WF 038. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: VAT 12605 (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany) — from Šuruppak (mod. Fara) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P010995). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-28/v6-glossary-aware).
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Related sources
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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.