Position in chronology
SAA 12 077. Collection of Decrees from Various Reigns (NARGD 54)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (i 1) 20 — the [......] (i 2) Total: 360 [......]. (i 3) The chief fuller of [the palace] gives 1 litre of oil, 1 litre of [...]. (i 6) The ploughmaster of the [palace] giv[es] one glass of car[damom ...]. (i 9) Total that Shalman[eser (IV)] establis[hed]. (i 11) The garde[ner] of the palace [gives] 5 ...-plants. (i 14) Total that was added by [...]. (i 15) [The wine master] gives 1 litre of wine. Total that was ad[ded] by Tiglath-Pil[eser (III)]. (i 18) The rab qaqqulāti gives 2 seahs of bread, 1 litre of so[up], 1 seah 4 litres of beer, and 2 litres of maṣhatu-flour.…
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/P336290/
Why it matters
Transliteration
20 ⸢LÚ⸣.[x x x x x] / PAB 03-me-60 ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / 01 qa Ì-MEŠ 01 qa [x x] / LÚ.GAL—TÚG.UD ⸢ša?⸣ [É.GAL?] / i-da-[an] / 01 bu-u-zu ku-⸢dim⸣-[me x x] / LÚ.GAL—ḫar-bi ša ⸢É?⸣.[GAL] / i-da-[an] / PAB ša mdDI-ma-⸢nu⸣—[MAŠ] / ir-ku-su-[u-ni] / 05 Ú.kur-up-pi [o?] / LÚ.NU.GIŠ.[SAR o] / ša É.GAL [i-da-an] / PAB UŠ-tú ša [mx x x] / 01 qa GEŠTIN-MEŠ [LÚ.GAL—GEŠTIN] / i-da-an PAB ⸢UŠ?⸣-[tú] / ša…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P336290.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336290). 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/P336290/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.