Position in chronology
SAA 14 295. Fragment of a Conveyance Text (ADD 0563)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [NN has contracted] and bought from [NN] for [x minas of silver] by the mina o[f ...]. (5) The money [is paid completely], that [...] is purchased and [acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit or] litigation is void. (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/P335490/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x x x x] / TAv pa-an m[x x x x] / ina ŠÀ-bi [x MA.NA KUG.UD] / ina 01 MA.NA ⸢ša?⸣ [x x x] / il-qí kas-pu [gam-mur ta-din x] / šú-a-tú za-rip [la-qí de-nu] / DUG₄.DUG₄ la-áš-[šú x x x] / [x x x] lid ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x] x [x x x x] / [x x x x] ⸢si?⸣ [x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335490.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335490). 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/P335490/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.