Position in chronology
SAA 06 015. Inurta-ila’i Buys Land from Uquwa and Ahu'a-eriba (ADD 0405)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Inurta-ila'i has contracted and] bought it [for x min]as of copper. (2) [The money is] paid [completely]. That land [is purchased and ac]quired. Any revocation, lawsu[it, or litigat]ion is void. (4) Whoever in the future, [at a]ny time, lodges a complaint, whether Uquwa or Ahu'a-eri[ba, o]r their sons, grandsons, brothers or nephews, or any relative of theirs, or their prefect, and seeks a lawsuit or litig[ation] against Inurta-ila'i, [his] brothers and [neph]ews, shall return the money ten[fold to] its [own]ers. [He shall contest] in [his lawsuit] and not succe[ed]. (r 7) [Witness Mun]eppiš-ilu, [mayor]. (r 8) [Witness Urarṭay]u, [...]. (r 9) [Witness ...]a, [...]. (Rest destroyed)
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/P335348/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[ina ŠÀ x MA].⸢NA URUDU⸣-MEŠ TI-⸢qí⸣ [kas-pu] / [gam-mur ta]-ad-din A.ŠÀ šu-a-tú [o] / [za-rip] ⸢laq⸣-qí tu-a-ru de-e-⸢nu⸣ / [DUG₄].⸢DUG₄⸣ la-áš-šú man-nu šá ina ur-⸢kiš⸣ / [ina] ⸢ma⸣-te-ma i-zaq-qup-an-ni lu-⸢u⸣ / [m]ú-qu-u-a lu-u mPAB-u-a—⸢SU⸣ / ⸢lu⸣-u DUMU-MEŠ-šú-nu lu-u DUMU—DUMU-MEŠ-šú-⸢nu⸣ / lu-u PAB-MEŠ-šú-nu lu-u DUMU—PAB-MEŠ-šú-nu / ⸢lu⸣-u mám-ma-nu-šú-nu lu-u LÚ.GAR-nu-šú-nu / ⸢ša⸣ TAv…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335348.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335348). 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/P335348/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.