Position in chronology
SAA 06 253. Issar-duri, the Queen Mothers Scribe, Buys a Large Estate (ADD 0428)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) Šumma-Ad[ad, ......]; (3) Gabbu-amur, farmer, [......]; (4) Nabû-nadin-ahhe, 1 boy of 4 span[s ...]; (5) [NN], 1 woman, 1 boy of 3 spans; an estate of 60 hectares of land, 31 persons and a vineyard — (7) Issar-duri, scribe of the queen mother, has contracted and bought (said property) for 1 1/2 minas less than one talent of silver from Paruṭṭu. (9) The silver is paid completely. That land, garden, and [peo]ple are purchased and acquired. Any revocation or litigation is void. (12) Whoever in the future or at any time lodges a complaint, [whe]ther Paruṭṭu or his sons,…
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/P335371/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢x x x⸣ [x x x x x x x x x] / mšum-ma—d⸢IM⸣ [x x x x x x x x] / mgab-bu—a-mur [LÚ].⸢ENGAR⸣ [x x x x x x x] / mdPA—AŠ—PAB-⸢MEŠ⸣ [01] DUMU 04 ⸢LAL*⸣ [x x x x] / 01 MÍ 01 DUMU 03 LAL É 60 ANŠE A.ŠÀ.GA / 31 ZI-MEŠ GIŠ.SAR ša til-lit up*-⸢piš⸣-ma / md*15*—BÀD LÚ.A.BA ša MÍ.AMA—LUGAL / ina ŠÀ 01 1/2 MA.NA LÁ ina 01 GÚ.UN KUG.UD ⸢TAv⸣ IGI / mpa-ru-ṭi ⸢il⸣-qí KUG.⸢UD⸣ gam-mur ta-⸢din⸣ / ⸢A.ŠÀ⸣ GIŠ.SAR…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335371.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335371). 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/P335371/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.