Position in chronology
SAA 14 225. Adad-[ ...] Buys an Estate of 50 Hectares
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] Ba[...] (2) [...] of Ka[...] — (3) [Ad]ad-[... has contracted and] bought [......] from [NN], from [...]-Issar, for [...] instead of Ši[......]. (7) The mon[ey is paid completely. That] estate of 50 hectares [... ...]ani-ilu [... is purchas]ed and acquired. [Any revocation, lawsuit, or li]tigation is vo[id]. (12) [Whoever at] any ti[me .....]
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/P336742/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x] mba-⸢x⸣+[x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ šá mka-⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [ú-piš-ma md]⸢IM—x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x x] TAv IGI m⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [TAv IGI mx]—d15 ina ŠÀ [x x x x] / [x x a]-⸢na⸣ ku-mi mši-[x x x] / [x x x] TI-qí kas-[pu gam-mur] / [ta-din-ni] É 50 ANŠE [x x x] / [mx x]+⸢x⸣-a-ni—DINGIR [x x x] / [za]-⸢rip⸣ laq-qi [tu-a-ru] / [de-nu] ⸢DUG₄⸣.DUG₄ la-[áš-šú] / [ina ur-kiš ina] ma-te-[ma x x] / [x x x x] ⸢x⸣ [x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P336742.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336742). 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/P336742/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.