Position in chronology
SAA 12 052. Fragment of Land Grant or Schedule (ADD 0745)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......, N]N ditto; [NN ......]; (2) [......]; Saka-il [......]; (3) [......; NN], farmer, ditto; Igilî [......]; (4) [......; NN], farmer, ditto; Sa[... ......]; (Rest destroyed)
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/P335610/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]-i KI.MIN m⸢x⸣+[x x] / [x x x] msa-ka—DINGIR [x x] / [x x LÚ].ENGAR KI.MIN mig—DINGIR / [x x LÚ].ENGAR KI.MIN msa-[x x] / [x x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x x]
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P335610.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335610). source
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/P335610/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.