Position in chronology
SAA 12 069. Decree of Expenditures for Various Ceremonies in the Aššur Temple (NARGD 42)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Adad-nerari (III), [representative of Enlil], overseer, son of Šamši-Adad (V), [representative of Enlil], overseer, son of Shalmaneser (III), [representative of Enlil], likewise overseer. (4) When Adad-nerari (III), king of Assyria, instituted [the expenditures] of oil and honey for the temple of Aššur and the sanctuaries of [... fo]r Shebat (XI) and for Tishri (VII) and for five days of intercalary Adar (XIIa), and entrusted them to Šamaš-naṣir, the treasurer of Aššur — (Blank seal space) (7) The expenditures for the pandugāni ceremony of the king: The confectioner takes 8 litres of…
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/Q009251/
Why it matters
Transliteration
mdIM—ERIM.GABA [GAR dBE] PA-lum / DUMU mdšam-ši—dIM [GAR dBE] PA-lum / DUMU mdDI-ma-nu—SAG [GAR dBE] PA-lum / ina UD-me mdIM—ERIM.GABA MAN KUR—aš-šur [SAG na-ad-ba-ku-MEŠ] ša Ì-MEŠ LÀL-MEŠ / ša É—aš-šur ù É.KUR-MEŠ ⸢ša?⸣ [x x] ⸢ša⸣ ITI.ZÍZ ša ITI.DUL ša UD 05-KÁM ša ITI.DIRI.ŠE.KIN.KUD / iš-šu-ni a-na mdUTU—PAB-ir LÚv.IGI.DUB ša aš-šur ip-qí-du-ni / na-ad-ba-ku-MEŠ ša pa-an-du-ga-ni ša LUGAL 08…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text Q009251.
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/Q009251/..
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/Q009251/.
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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.