Position in chronology
SAA 06 010. Inurta-ila’i Buys Land (717-XI-16) (ADD 0391)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Instead of [his seal] he impressed his [fin]gernail. (2) Fingernail of Šer-idri, owner of the land being sold. (space for fingernail impressions) (3) An estate of 3 hectares of land on the edge of an irrigation outlet, adjoining the road [to] Calah, (the field of) Zabinu, and the side road to [the village] of the Aramean; (6) an estate of 7 decares of land adjoining (the field of) Urarṭayu, the road to Calah, and (the fields of) Zabinu and Bel-(lu)-balaṭ; (8) an estate of 3 hectares of land [adjoin]ing (the fields of) Nuhšaya, Zabinu and Bel-(lu)-balaṭ, the side road to the village of…
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/P335335/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ku-⸢um⸣ [NA₄.KIŠIB-šú ṣu]-pur-šú iš-⸢kun⸣ / ṣu-pur mše-⸢er-ri*⸣—id-ri EN A.ŠÀ ⸢SUM⸣-ni / É 03 ⸢ANŠE⸣ A.ŠÀ qa-ni ma-šá-qí-te / SUḪUR ⸢KASKAL⸣ [šá] ⸢URU.kàl⸣-ḫa SUḪUR mza-bi-ni / SUḪUR AMA šá [URU.ŠE—m]ar-ma-a.a / É 7(bán) A.ŠÀ SUḪUR mKUR*.URI-a.a / ⸢SUḪUR⸣ KASKAL šá URU.kàl-ḫa SUḪUR mza-bi-ni / ⸢SUḪUR⸣ mEN—TI.LA É 03 ANŠE A.ŠÀ / ⸢SUḪUR⸣ mḪÉ.NUN-a.a SUḪUR mza-bi-ni / ⸢SUḪUR⸣ mEN—TI.LA SUḪUR ⸢AMA⸣…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335335.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335335). 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/P335335/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.