Position in chronology
SAA 14 246. Purchase of Slaves (ADD 0304)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) The money [is paid completely]. Th[ose] people [are purch]ased and acqu[ired. Any revocation], lawsuit, or litig[ation is void]. (5) [Whoever] in the future, [at any t]ime, [lodges a comp]laint and breaks the contract, (r 1) [shall return the money tenfold to] its owners. [He shall contest] in his [law]suit [and not] su[cceed]. (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/P335249/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[il]-qi kas-pu [gam-mur] / [ta-ad-din] UN-MEŠ šu-[a-tú] / [za-ar]-pu laq-[qi-u] / [tu-a-ru] de-e-nu DUG₄.[DUG₄] / [la-áš-šú man-nu šá] ina ur-kiš / [ina ma]-te-ma / [i-za]-qu-pa-ni / i-GIL-u-ni / [kas-pu a]-na [x x] x x / [ana EN-MEŠ]-šú [GUR-ra ina de]-ni-šú / [DUG₄.DUG₄-ma la] i?-[laq-qi]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335249.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335249). 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/P335249/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.