Position in chronology
SAA 14 412. Fragment of a Witness List
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [Witness ...]...[...] (r 2) [Witness ...], ...[...] (r 3) [Witness NN, co]hort [commander ...] (r 4) [Witness NN], cohort commander [...] (r 5) [Witness NN], cohort [comma]nder of the royal bod[yguard]. (r 6) [Witness NN, c]ohort [commander] of the royal body[guard]. (r 7) [Witness NN, c]ohort [commander] of the ša šēpi guard. (r 8) [Witness ..., ....]... (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/P336756/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[IGI mx x x x x] in? [x] / [IGI mx x x x x]+⸢x⸣ an ⸢x x⸣ [x] / [IGI mx x x x ki]-ṣir [x] / [IGI mx x x x LÚ].GAL—ki-ṣir [x x] / [IGI mx x x x LÚ].⸢GAL⸣—ki-ṣir ⸢qur⸣-[ZAG] / [IGI mx x x x LÚ.GAL]—⸢ki⸣-ṣir qur-[ZAG] / [IGI mx x x x LÚ.GAL]—⸢ki⸣-ṣir GÌR.⸢2⸣ [o] / [IGI mx x x 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 P336756.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336756). 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/P336756/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.