Position in chronology
SAA 14 479. Fragment of a Remanni-Adad Document (ADD 1254)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [.... in] Izalla — (3) [Remanni]-Adad, chief [chariot driver has contracted] (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/P336015/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x] ⸢x⸣ [x x] / [x x x x x ina?] KUR.ì-zal-[la] / [ú-piš-ma mrém-an-ni]—dIM [o] / [LÚ.mu-kil—KUŠ.PA-MEŠ] dan-nu [o] / [x x x x x] ⸢ITI?⸣ ra? te [x] / [x x x x x x] i-din-nu [x] / [x x x x x x] ina tab?-ku [x] / [x x x x x x] ḫar [x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P336015.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336015). 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/P336015/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.