SAA 06 021. A Building Contract (734) (ADD 0090)

~700 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P335042

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 6

High confidence

(1) Šamaš-bani-apli, [NN], La-tubašanni-[ilu, NN], Ken-abuya, Ahu-i[la'i], a total of six men. (5) (Their wage is) 2 talents of copper and 3 homers 6 seahs (c. 700 litres) of bread and beer. (7) They shall work for a month. One shall install beams on the entire barn, plaster the roof, and put in the drain pipe. (r 1) If the bricks are in short supply, they shall do their work and finish it in the following month. (r 5) Witness Abu-ul-idi. (r 6) Witness Qurbu-ilu. (r 7) Witness Adad-ahu-uṣur. (r 8) Witness Inurta-bel-u[ṣur]. (r 9) [Witness] Ṣil-[...]. (r 10) [Witness] Nabû-[...]. (r 11) [Witness] Adad-[...]. (r 12) [Month ...], 6th day, eponym year of Bel-dan, during his second term.

State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

mdUTU—DÙ—A ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / mla—tú-ba-šá-ni—[DINGIR mx x] / mGIN—AD-ia mŠEŠ—⸢DINGIR⸣-[a-a] / PAB 06 LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ / 02 GÚ.UN URUDU-MEŠ / 03 ANŠE 6(bán) NINDA-MEŠ KAŠ*-MEŠ* / ša* ITI dul-lu DÙ-uš* / tal-pi-tú gab-bu / GIŠ.ÙR*-MEŠ* ú-ṣa-bat / ú-ri i-si-ár / GIŠ*.pi-sa*-nu / GAR-an / šúm-mu li-bi-⸢tú*⸣ / ta-ma-ṭí / EGIR* ITI dul-la-šú*-nu* / DÙ-uš* ú-ga-mur / IGI mAD—ul—ZU / IGI mqur-bu—DINGIR / IGI…

Scholarly note

Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335042.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335042). 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/P335042/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.

~2100 BCE

Code of Ur-Nammu

The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.

~1754 BCE

Code of Hammurabi (stele)

Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.