Position in chronology
SAA 06 006. Mušallim-Issar Buys 7 Slaves (713-III-3) (ADD 0248)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (fingernail impression) (1) Šamaš-immi, his wife, son, and 4 daughters, a total of 7 persons, servants of Gabbaru — (4) Mušallim-Issar has contracted and bought them for 180 minas of copper from Gabbaru. (7) [The mon]ey is paid completely. Those pe[opl]e are purchased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit, or litigation is vo[id]. (12) Whoever in the future, at any time, breaks the contract, shall pay 10 minas of silver to Ninurta residing in Calah. He shall pay [one] talent of tin to the go[vern]or of his city, and shall re[turn] the money ten[fold] to its owner. [He…
Source: 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/P335195/
Why it matters
Transliteration
mdšá-maš—im-me MÍ-šú DUMU-šú / 04 DUMU.MÍ-MEŠ-šú PAB 07 ZI-MEŠ / LÚv.ARAD-MEŠ ša mgab-ri / ú-piš-ma mmu-šal-lim—d15 / ina ŠÀ 01 me 80 MA.NA ⸢URUDU⸣-MEŠ / TAv IGI mgab-ri / il-⸢qi kas⸣-pu ga-mur / ta-din ⸢UN-MEŠ⸣ šu-a-tú / za-ar-pu ⸢la*-qi-ú⸣ / tu-a-ru de-⸢e⸣-[nu] / da-ba-bu la-áš-⸢šu⸣ / man-nu ša ina ur-kiš / ina ma-ti-ma GIL-u-ni / 10 MA.NA KUG.UD a-na dMAŠ / a-šib URU.kal-ḫi SUM-an / 1 GÚ.UN…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335195.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335195). 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/P335195/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.