Position in chronology
SAA 14 267. Fragment of a Conveyance Text (ADD 0479)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [The money] is paid completely. [Tha]t [...] acquired and purchased. (3) [Any revocation, law]suit or litigation is void. (4) [Whoever in the fut]ure, at any time, [lodges a comp]laint, whether Mar-suri [or his sons o]r his brothers, (Break) (r 1) shall return [the money tenfold to its owner]s. [He shall contest in his lawsuit] and not succeed. (r 3) [Witness ...]i, priest. (r 4) [Witness NN], priest. (r 5) [Witness NN], priest. (r 6) [Witness NN], priest. (r 7) [Witness NN, pri]est. (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/P335418/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x kas-pu] ⸢gam-mur?⸣ [ta-din] / [x x x x x šú-a]-tú za-rip laq-qi / [tu-a-ru de]-ni DUG₄.DUG₄ la-šú / [man-nu šá ina ur]-kiš ina ma-te-e-ma / [i-za-qu]-⸢pa⸣-a-ni lu-u mmar—su-ri / [lu-u DUMU-MEŠ-šú] ⸢lu⸣-u PAB-MEŠ-šú / [x x x x x x x]-⸢MEŠ⸣-šú / [kas-pu a-na 10-MEŠ a-na EN-šú]-MEŠ GUR / [ina de-ni-šú DUG₄.DUG₄-ma] la i-laq-qi / [IGI mx x x]-i LÚv.SANGA / [IGI mx x x x x] LÚv.SANGA / [IGI mx x x x x] LÚv.SANGA / [IGI mx x x x x] LÚv.SANGA / [IGI mx x x x x LÚv].⸢SANGA⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335418.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335418). 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/P335418/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.