Position in chronology
SAA 06 085. The Governess of the Central City Harem Buys Two Slaves (692-X-6) (ADD 0242)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) [Seal of NN, s]eal of Kiqil[lanu], owners of the people being sold. (space for stamp seal impressions) (4) Nabû-na'id and the woman Akbarâ, a total of two persons, servants of these men — (7) the governess of the central city (harem) has contracted and bought them from these men for one mina of silver by the king's mina. (10) The money is paid completely. Those people are purchased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit, or litigation is void. (14) [Whoev]er in the future, at any time, [lodges a compla]int, shall place 4 minas of [refined] silver (and) [x minas] of pure [gol]d in the lap…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[NA₄.KIŠIB] m[x x x x x] / ⸢NA₄⸣.KIŠIB mki-qil-⸢la*⸣-[nu] / EN UN-MEŠ SUM-⸢ni⸣ / mdPA—I MÍ.ak-ba-ra-a / PAB 02 ZI-MEŠ ARAD-MEŠ-ni / šá LÚ-MEŠ-e an-nu-u-te / ú-piš-ma MÍ.GAR-tú šá MURUB₄—URU / ina ŠÀ 01 MA.NA KUG.UD ina 01 MA*-e šá MAN / TAv IGI LÚ-MEŠ-e an-nu-ti / il-qi kas-pu gam-mur ta-ad-din / UN-MEŠ šu-a-tú za-ár-pu / la-qi*-ú tu-a-ru / de-⸢e⸣-nu DUG₄.DUG₄ la-áš-šú / [man]-⸢nu⸣ šá ina ur-kiš…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335189.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335189). 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/P335189/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.
Among the oldest surviving written law collections. It provides an early witness to royal justice and specified compensation, rather than a starting date for law itself.