Position in chronology
SAA 14 252. Purchase of a Vegetable Garden (ADD 0367)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Nergal-uballissu, (2) seal of Nergal-upni'a, (3) [in all 2] men, [sons of ...]..., (4) porter of [...] of the city, [owner] of the veget[able] garden [(and) ...] being sold. (space for seal impressions) (Break) (r 1) [Witness] Nabû-šezib, [...].
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/P335311/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mdU.GUR—ú-⸢bal⸣-liṭ-su / NA₄.KIŠIB mdU.GUR—up*-⸢ni*⸣-ia / [PAB 02] LÚ-MEŠ-⸢e⸣ [A mx x x]-MEŠ-šú / [LÚ].Ì.DU₈ šá [x x x x x x] ⸢URU⸣ / [EN] GIŠ.SAR šá ⸢Ú*⸣.[SAR x x x x SUM]-⸢ni*⸣ / [IGI m]⸢d⸣PA—še-zib LÚ.[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 P335311.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335311). 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/P335311/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.