Position in chronology
SAA 12 036. Aššur-etel-ilani Exempts a Cohort Commander from Taxes (NARGD 14)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Aššur-etel]-ilani, [......, overseer; son of As]surbanipal, [......, overseer; son of] Esarhaddon, [......, likewise overseer]. (royal seal impressions) (4) After my father and begetter had dep[arted], no father brought me up or taught me to spread my [wings], no mother cared for me or saw to my [education], (7) Sin-šumu-lešir, the chief eunuch, [one who had deserved well] of my father and be[getter, who had led me constantly like a father, installed me] safely on the throne of my father and begetter [and made the people of Assyria, great and small, keep] watch over [my kingship during]…
Source: Kataja, L. & Whiting, R. 1995. Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period. SAA 12. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa12/P336260/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[mAN.ŠÁR—NIR.GÁL]—⸢DINGIR-MEŠ⸣ [x x x x x x x x x PA-lum] / [DUMU mAN].ŠÁR—DÙ—A [x x x x x x x x x x PA-lum] / [DUMU m]⸢AN.ŠÁR⸣—PAB—AŠ [x x x x x x x x x x PA-lum-ma] / ⸢ul⸣-tu ⸢AD⸣ ba-nu-ú-a il-⸢li⸣-ku ⸢nam⸣-[mu-ši-šú] / ⸢AD?⸣ la ú-rab-ba-an-ni-ma la ⸢iṣ⸣-[pu]-pa-an-ni [kap-pi] / ⸢ba⸣-an-tu ul iḫ-su-us-⸢ma⸣ [ul tu]-⸢šar⸣-šá-an-ni [ṭè-e-mu] / [md]30—MU—SI.SÁ LÚ.GAL—⸢SAG⸣ [EN—MUN?] ⸢AD ba⸣-[ni-ia…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P336260.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Laura Kataja and Robert M. Whiting, Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period (State Archives of Assyria, 12), 1995. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336260/..
Translation excerpted from Kataja, L. & Whiting, R. 1995. Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period. SAA 12. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa12/P336260/.
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.