SAA 12 059. Fragment of Land Grant or Schedule (ADD 0887)

~700 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P335728

Translation · reference

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......] ditto [his] peo[ple], (2) [......] ditto, (3) [......]-šamê ditto, (4) [......] lower ditto, (5) [......] ditto, (6) [......]... ditto, (7) [......] his [...], (8) [...... the to]wn of Abattê ditto, (9) [......] estate farmer of the town of [...], (10) [......] and his people, (11) [...... the town of T]ina ditto, (12) [...... es]tate farmer of the town of Bi[...], (13) [...... Q]atar-il, [(...)], (14) [...... esta]te farmer of [...], (15) [...... the tow]n of Ad[...], (16) [......] Cala[h ...], (17) [......] Harihumba, (18) [......] Nineveh, (19) [......] Badû'a, (20) [......] Ya[...] (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/P335728/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢:⸣ UN*-[MEŠ-šú] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [:.] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x]—AN-e :. / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] KI.TA :. / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] :* / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x].⸢MU*⸣ :* / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-šú / [x x x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢URU?⸣.a-bat-te*-e :. / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ENGAR*—É URU.⸢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 P335728.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335728). 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/P335728/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

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.

~2450 BCE

Stele of the Vultures

The earliest historical document in human history.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.

~2100 BCE

Code of Ur-Nammu

The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.