Position in chronology
SAA 06 221. Note of Silver and Barley Owed to Silim-Aššur (680-III) (ADD 0113)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 10 minas of silver and 120 homers of barley plus its interest, belonging to Silim-Aššur, at the disposal of Hanṭasanu and Marduk-šumu-uṣur. (5) They shall pay in Elul (VI). If they do not, the silver shall increase 50 percent per mina. (8) [Bel-er]eš is the guarantor. (r 1) [Witness] Nabû-la-tuššaranni. (r 2) Witness Milkaya. Ditto Nurani. (r 3) Witness Mannu-aki-Arbail. (r 4) Witness Salamame, royal bodyguard. (r 5) Witness Nušku-ila'i. (r 6) Month Sivan (III), [...th] (day), eponym year of Dananu. (e. 1) [Aft]er the remission of de[bts ...].
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/P335064/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢10⸣ MA*.NA KUG*.UD 01 me 20 ANŠE ŠE.PAD-[MEŠ] / ⸢a⸣-du ru-bé-šú ša msi-lim—aš-šur / ⸢ina*⸣ IGI mḫa-an-ṭa-sa-ni / ⸢ina*⸣ IGI mdMES—MU—PAB / ⸢a*⸣-na* ITI.KIN i-du-nu / [šúm]-mu la i-din-nu / [KUG.UD* ina] ⸢1/2⸣ MA.NA-šú i-rab-bi / [mEN]—⸢APIN⸣ EN—ŠU.2-MEŠ / [IGI] ⸢m*d⸣PA—la—tú-šar-a-ni / IGI mmil-ka-ia : mnu-ra-a-ni / IGI mman-nu—a-ki—arba-ìl / IGI msa-la-ma-me LÚv.qur-bu-tú / IGI mnu-uš-ku—DINGIR-a.a / ITI.SIG₄ [x] / [lim]-mu mda-na-a-nu / ⸢EGIR*⸣ du-⸢ra⸣-[ri] ⸢x⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335064.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335064). 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/P335064/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.