Position in chronology
SAA 06 172. Purchase of Slaves (685-VII-26) (ADD 0274)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) Seal of Tirî, prefect of the Harranians, owner of the people being sold. (cylinder and stamp seal impressions) (3) [NN], his wife [...]-Nanaya, [......, a total of] 6 people (Break) (r 2) [Witness ...]-apli, scribe. (r 3) Month Tishri (VII), 25th day, eponym year of Aššur-da''inanni of Que. (r 6) 1 shekel of silver for his fingernail.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mti-ri-i LÚv.GAR-nu / URU.KASKAL-a*.a* EN UN-MEŠ SUM-ni / [x x x x x] ⸢x x⸣—[d]⸢na-na-a*⸣ MÍ-šú / [x x x x x x x PAB] 06 ZI-MEŠ / [x x x x]+⸢x x⸣ [x x x] / [IGI mx x x x]—A* LÚv.A.[BA] / ITI.DUL UD 25*-KÁM / lim-mu maš*-šur*—KALAG-in-a-ni / ša KUR.qu-e / 01 GÍN KUG.UD ša ṣu-pur-šú
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335221.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335221). 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/P335221/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.