Position in chronology
SAA 14 004. Milki-nuri Buys Five Slaves (ADD 0287)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Nabuti, owner of the people being sold. (stamp seal impressions) (3) [...-ah]he-balliṭ, his wife, [...]-ibni, Bel-šarru-ibni, (and) [...]ši, a total of 5 persons — (6) Milki-nuri, [eun]uch of the queen, [has contracted and (bought) them] (Rest destroyed)
Source: Mattila, R. 2002. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal through Sin-šarru-iškun. SAA 14. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa14/P335232/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢NA₄⸣.KIŠIB mna-bu-ti / EN UN-MEŠ <<ta>> ta-SUM-a-ni / [mx x]—⸢PAB⸣-MEŠ—TI MÍ-šú / [mx x]—DÙ mEN—MAN—DÙ / [mx x x]-⸢ši?⸣ PAB 05 ZI-MEŠ / [ú-piš-ma] mmil-ki—ZÁLAG / [LÚ].⸢SAG⸣ MÍ—⸢É.GAL⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335232.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335232). source
Translation excerpted from Mattila, R. 2002. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal through Sin-šarru-iškun. SAA 14. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa14/P335232/.
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.