Position in chronology
SAA 14 458. Barruqu Lends Grain (TIM 11 35)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 5 homers one seah 5 'l[itres' ...] according to the seah of [x 'litre(s)'] belonging to Barr[uqu], (4) at the disposal of Nabû-šallimšunu, (5) at the disposal of Ereš-Issar, (6) They shall pay at the threshing floor in its original amount. (7) If they do not pay, it shall accrue interest. Month Nisan (I), (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/P224978/
Why it matters
Transliteration
05 ANŠE 1(bán) 05 ⸢qa⸣ [x x] / ina GIŠ.BÁN ša [x qa] / ša mbar-⸢ruq⸣-[qu] / ina IGI mdPA—DI-šú-nu / ina IGI mAPIN-eš—15 / ina ad-ri SAG.DU-šá SUM-⸢nu⸣ / šum-ma la i-din-<nu> / ⸢tar*⸣-bi ITI.BARAG
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P224978.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Raija Mattila, Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal Through Sin-šarru-iškun (State Archives of Assyria, 14), 2002. Lemmatised by Melanie Groß, 2010–2011, as part of the FWF-funded research project "Royal Institutional Households in First Millennium BC Mesopotamia" (S 10802-G18) directed by Heather D. Baker at the University of Vienna. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P224978/..
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/P224978/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.