Position in chronology
SAA 06 032. Gazilu Buys a Building Plot (707-VI-15) (ADD 0350)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) [Fin]gernail [of Ubru-Allaya], owner [of the vacant lot being sold]. (fingernail impressions) (3) A vacant l[ot adjoining Nu]rtî, a garden, an estate of 1 hectare 6 decares of land in the town of Bit-Da[gan], adjoining the garden of Arbailayu, (the estate of) Qurdi-Issar, the canal of Adian, and (the estate) of Bel-taklak — (8) Gazilu has contracted, purchased and acquired it for 80 minas of copper. (10) The money is paid completely. That land is purchased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit, or litigation is void. (13) Whoever in the future, at any time, lodges a complaint, whether…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
⸢ṣu⸣-pur [mSUḪUŠ—a-la-a-a] / EN [kaq-qi-ri pu-ṣe-e SUM-ni] / kaq-qi-ri pu-[ṣe-e SUḪUR? m]⸢MAŠ*⸣-i / GIŠ.SAR É 01 ANŠE 6(bán) A.ŠÀ ina URU.É—da-[gan] / SUḪUR GIŠ.SAR ša mURU.arba-ìl-a.a / SUḪUR mqur-di—15 SUḪUR ḫi-ri-te / ša URU.a-di-an SUḪUR mEN—tàk-lak / ú-piš-ma mga-zi-lu / ina ŠÀ-bi 80 MA.NA URUDU-MEŠ i-zi-rip / i-si-qi kas-pu ga-mur ta-din / A.ŠÀ.GA šu-a-tú za-rip la-qi / tu-a-⸢ru⸣ de-nu…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335294.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335294). 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/P335294/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history.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.
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.