Position in chronology
SAA 12 017. Fragment of Land Grant, Possibly Part of No. 15
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 12(Beginning destroyed) (2) [...] Urad-Gula 4 (persons); N[N, ...] (3) [...] Adda-naṣapi 5 (persons); Mu[..., ...] (4) [...] Gabrî, 5 (persons); [NN, ...] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 12 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[x x x x] ⸢x x x⸣ [x x x x x] / [x x x x] mARAD—dgu-la 04 m⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x x md]IM—na-ṣa-pi 05 mmu-⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x x m]gab-ri-i 05 [x x x x] / [x x x x 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 P336725.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336725). 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/P336725/.
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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.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.