Position in chronology
SAA 12 097. Private Votive Donation to Nabu (NARGD 37)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) 100 rams [......] (3) he has cleared (of claims) and [donated] to Nabû, [his lord]. (4) Whoever raises a claim against t[hose] people and tries to assert his authority over them, may the mighty king, lord of lords, [...], Marduk and [his] s[pous]e Zarpanitu make his dynasty disappear from the land; may Nabû, the scribe of Esaggil, shorten his long days and may Tašmetu, the spouse of Nabû, speak unfavourably of him in the presence of her husband Nabû. (r 2) May Ištar dwelling in Arbela fill him with leprosy and cut off his entrance to temple and palace, and [may] Ninurta dwelling in Calah slay him with his [sharp] arrow. (r 7) [Witness NN, the] mayor [of Calah] (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/P336278/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢ta du?⸣ [x x x x x x x x] / 01-me UDU.⸢NÍTA-MEŠ⸣ [x x x x x] / ú-zak-ki-ma a-⸢na dAG⸣ [EN-šú id-din] / man-nu šá ina UGU UN-MEŠ ⸢šu⸣-[na-tu-nu?] / i-da-bu-bu i-šal-liṭ-⸢ṭu?⸣-[u-ni] / LUGAL dan-nu be-el be-el-li [x x x x] / dAMAR.UTU dzar-pa-ni-⸢tum x x⸣ [x x] / BALA-a-šú TAv KUR li-ḫal-li-⸢qu⸣ / dAG DUB.SAR É.⸢sag⸣-gíl / UD-MEŠ-šú GÍD.DA-MEŠ ⸢li⸣-kar-ri / dtaš-me-tum ⸢ḫi-rat dna-bi-um⸣ / ina…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P336278.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336278). 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/P336278/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.