Position in chronology
SAA 06 001. Mušallim-Issar Purchases Slaves (742-XI-26) (ADD 0075)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) [Instead of his seal he impressed] his fingernail. (2) [Fingernail of ...]î, [owner of the man being sold]. (fingernail impressions) (Break) (r 6) [If he does not pa]y, he shall not come out. Whoever pays [x m]inas of silver to Mušallim-Issar, shall redeem the man together with his people. (r 10) Witness Sipparanu, tanner of colored leather. (r 11) [Witness] Libbalayu. Witness Aššur-šallim-ahhe, [ch]ariot driver. (r 12) Witness Sin-iddina, 'third man.' (r 13) [Witness] Naṣî. Witness Bihî. (r 14) [Witness I]mmani-Aššur. Witness Yaya. (r 15) [A total of 8 witnesses] from Til-Inurta. (r 16)…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[ku-um NA₄.KIŠIB-šú] ṣu-bar-šú [iš-kun] / [ṣu-bar mx x]-i [EN LÚ SUM*] / [x x x x x x x]+⸢x ra*⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x] a a [x x] / [x x x x x x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x x] di* / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢x⸣ ḫa ⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x LÚ].⸢tur⸣-ta-ni / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]-ir—PAB / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]—15 / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x]—SAG* / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]—⸢ú⸣-kín / [x x x x x x x x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335027.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335027). source
Translation excerpted from Kwasman, T. & Parpola, S. 1991. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I: Tiglath-Pileser III through Esarhaddon. SAA 6. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa06/P335027/.
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.
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.
Among the oldest surviving written law collections. It provides an early witness to royal justice and specified compensation, rather than a starting date for law itself.