Position in chronology
SAA 14 198. Lu-balaṭ Buys Land and People (ADD 0426)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] his [... daug]hter, (2) [...]-ili, his suckling child, (3) [...]ṣi, his daughter (of) 4 spa[ns], (4) [...]ate, Nabû-kenu-ubbib, (5) [...]kittu, his maid, hi[s] 2 servants, (6) [an estate of x hect]ares of land (according to the seah of) 8 1/2 'litres', a house, a threshing floor [.....] — (7) Lu-balaṭ, [deputy] of Silim-Inurta, governor of [......] has contracted [and bought] them for 1 talent of iron. (10) [The money] is paid [compl]etely. The house, field, ga[rden and the people are purchased] and acquired. Any revocation, laws[uit, or litigation is void]. (r…
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/P335369/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x DUMU].MÍ-su ⸢x⸣+[x] / [x x x x x x x x]—DINGIR DUMU-šú GA* / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ṣi* DUMU.MÍ-su 04 ru*-⸢ṭu*⸣ / [x x x x x*]-⸢a*⸣-te* mAG—GIN—DADAG.GA [o] / [MÍ.x x x]-kit-tú GÉME-šú 02 LÚv.ARAD-MEŠ-⸢šú⸣ / [É x] ⸢ANŠE*⸣ 8(bán)* 08 1/2 qa A.ŠÀ É ad-ru / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣-en-ḫu ú-piš-ma mlu—TI.⸢LA*⸣ / [LÚ.x x] ša mDI—dMAŠ LÚ.EN.NAM ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x]-bar ina ŠÀ 01 GÚ.UN ⸢AN*.BAR*⸣ [x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335369.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335369). 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/P335369/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.