Position in chronology
SAA 14 301. Purchase of a Woman (ADD 0577)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [NN] has co[ntracted and] bought her for [...]. (4) The mone[y] is paid [completely]. [This wom]an is purchased and acquired]. Any lawsuit, or litigation is void. (8) Whoever brea[ks] the contract, shall give 5 minas of silver, and shall return [the money] tenfold [to] their [ow]ner. He shall contest [in] his lawsuit and not succeed. (r 4) Witness Ṣidqâ, (r 5) Witness Nabû-šumu-iddina, (r 6) [Witness ...]-šarru-[...] (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/P335502/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢MÍ?⸣ [x x x x x] / ú-[piš-ma mx x x] / ina ŠÀ-bi [x x x x] / il-qi kas-⸢pu⸣ [gam-mur] / ta-di-ni ⸢MÍ*⸣ [šu-a-tu za-rip TI] / de-e-nu DUG₄.DUG₄ [o] / la-áš-šú [o] / man-nu ša GIL-u-[ni] / 05? MA.NA KUG.UD SUM-an / [kas-pu a]-⸢na⸣ 10-MEŠ-te / [a-na] ⸢EN⸣-šú-nu u*-GUR* / [ina] de-ni-šú DUG₄.DUG₄-ma là TI / IGI mṣi-id-qa-a.a / IGI mdPA?—MU—AŠ / [IGI mx x]—MAN?—[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 P335502.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335502). 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/P335502/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.