Position in chronology
SAA 14 235. Silver Debt (ADD 0109)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [...] silver [NN] (2) [...] Marduk-naṣir, son of [...] (3) [...] 15th day of month Nis[an (I)], (4) [It shall increase] 1 shekel of silver [per mina]. (5) [...]... Ṣillay[a, ...] (6) [...]bi, son of [NN], (7) [...]a, son of [NN], (8) [...]tu, son of [NN] (Break) (r 1) [...] Elam [...]
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/P335060/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x⸣ KUG.UD m[x x x x] / [x x x m]dAMAR.UTU—ŠEŠ A* [x x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ UD 15-KÁM šá ITI.⸢BARAG⸣ / [ina ma]-⸢né*⸣-e 01 GÍN KUG.UD [x x x] / [x x x mu]-kin-⸢nu⸣ mṣil-la-a*-[a x x x] / [mx x x]-bi A-šú šá [mx x x] / [mx x x]-a A-šú šá m[x x x] / [mx x x]-tú A-šú šá [mx x x] / [x x x] KUR.NIM.MA [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 P335060.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Raija Mattila, Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal Through Sin-šarru-iškun (State Archives of Assyria, 14), 2002. Lemmatised by Melanie Groß, 2010–2011, as part of the FWF-funded research project "Royal Institutional Households in First Millennium BC Mesopotamia" (S 10802-G18) directed by Heather D. Baker at the University of Vienna. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P335060/..
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/P335060/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.