All tablets.

Šamši-Adad I 2009

(1) Tarim-š[akim], servant of Šamšī-[Adad (I)].

Šamši-Adad I 2010

(1) Umannisuṭa, son of Idin-[...], servant of Šamšī-[Adad (I)].

Šamši-Adad I 2011

(1) Adad-saga, son of Ḫaziya, servant of Šamšī-[Adad (I)].

Šamši-Adad I 2012

(1) [M]ašiya, son of Šalim-[...], servant of Šam[šī-Adad (I)].

Šamši-Adad I 2013

(1) Lu-Ninsianna, son of ..., servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2014

(1) [Zi]mrī-ḫammu, [son of S]umu-ammim, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2015

(1) D[agān-...], son of ...[...], servant of Šamšī-Ad[ad (I)].

Šamši-Adad I 2016

(1) Ṣurri-Adad, [son of Z]idriya, [servant of] Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2017 / CDLI Seals 009443

(1) Ibāl-eraḫ, son of Kiabkurānu, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2018

(1) Laḫar-abī, the scribe, son of Kakisum, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2019

(1) Sîn-iqīšam, son of Būr-Adad, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2020 / CDLI Seals 008051

(1) Rīš-ilu, son of Aduanniam, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2021

(1) Pazaya, son of Aḫi-šakim, servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2022

(1) Kunnat[um], son of Mezi..., servant of Šamšī-Adad (I).

Šamši-Adad I 2023

(1) Samiya, son of Ḫani-m[alik], servant of Šamš[ī-Adad (I)].

~1900 BCE·Old AssyrianRIAo

Sargon I 1 / CDLI Seals 003474

(1) The divine Sargon (I), vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of Ikūnum, vice-regent of the god Aššur.

~1900 BCE·Old AssyrianRIAo

Sargon I 2001

(1) When the divine Sargon (was) vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, Ḫadītum, the wife of Bēlam-nāda, dedicated (this) to the Assyrian Ištar, her lady. She put (the symbol of the) pudendum into (the Ištar temple) for the life of her husband, her (own) life, and the life of her children.

Abi-sare 2005 / CDLI Seals 012800 (CDLI Seals 012800 (composite))

(1) ..., the scribe, child of Lu-Ninšubur, the temple administrator of Ningal, is the slave of Abi-sare.

Abi-sare 2006 / CDLI Seals 012801 (CDLI Seals 012801 (composite))

(1) Lugal-šuba, the scribe, child of Ur-dukuga, the slave of Abi-sare.

Abi-sare 3add

(1) For Nanna, his master, Abi-sare, the powerful man, king of Urim, built and restored the city wall of Iškun-Suen.

Gungunum 1

Attests an en priestess of Nanna — a royal cultic office held by a king's daughter — dedicating a storehouse to Dagan in her own name, linking Gungunum's Ur III dynasty to both lunar and grain-god patronage.

Gungunum 2

(1) For Utu, the offspring of Nanna, the heir of the E-kišnuĝal, who was born by Ningal, his master, En-ana-tuma, the zirru priestess, the en priestess of Nanna in Urim, child of Išme-Dagan, king of Sumer and Akkad, built his E-hili, built his holy storehouse, and dedicated it to him for the well-being of Gungunum, the powerful man, king of Urim, and for her (own) well-being.

Gungunum 3

(1) Gungunum, king of Larsa, king of Sumer and Akkad, the powerful heir of Samium, fashioned both the bricks and the walls of the great wall of Larsa, its name is “Utu is the vanquisher of the rebellious lands”, in a single year.

Gungunum 4

(1) Gungunum, king of Larsam, king of Sumer and Akkad.

Gungunum 5add

(i 1) When An and Enlil granted the rule over Sumer and Akkad and the leadership of the Amorite lands fully to Utu in Larsam, then Gungunum, powerful man, king of Larsam, farmer of Urim, avenger of the E-babbar, king of Sumer and Akkad, powerful heir of Samium, built the great city wall of Larsa, its name is “Utu is the vanquisher of the rebellious lands”. (ii 2) By my surpassing expertise I did drain the swamps of my city. I did make its bricks and complete the great city wall in a single year. I did make the Euphrates flow right through the middle of my city. (ii 10) In those days, during…

Rim-Sin I 2001

(1) Iltani, daughter of Ilum-bani, presented (this) dish for the well-being of Rim-Sin, king of Larsam (and) for her own well-being to Inana of Zabalam.

Sumu-El 1

Attests Sumu-El's construction of a sacred storehouse for Inana at Ur, anchoring his reign within the tradition of royal temple-building that legitimised kingship across the Ur III and Isin-Larsa periods.

Sumu-El 2

Attests Sumu-El's construction of Nanaya's temple E-ituda at Ur, anchoring the goddess's early cultic presence in that city within the dynastic building program of an Old Babylonian king.

Sumu-El 2002

Dedicatory inscription naming Sumu-El as king of Ur to the moon-god's consort Ningal: one of the surviving votive texts anchoring the reign of this understudied Isin-Larsa ruler.

Sumu-El 2003 / CDLI Seals 012803 (CDLI Seals 012803 (composite))

(i 1) Sumu-El, the powerful man, king of Urim, king of Sumer and Akkad: Lu-Ninšubur, the scribe, child of Kudanum, is your servant.

Sumu-El 2007 / CDLI Seals 012045 (CDLI Seals 012045 (composite))

(1) Kug-Lugalbanda, šita-eša priest of Ningal, child of Nasilim, servant of Sumu-el.

Warad-Sin 11

Warad-Sin dedicates a temple to Inana at Zabalam and names Kudur-mabuk as his father, anchoring the Elamite-origin dynasty of Larsa within the traditional Sumerian gesture of piety-for-longevity.

Warad-Sin 30

(1) To Nanna, his lord, Warad-Sin, governor of Utu, child of Kudur-mabuk, father of the Amorite lands, dedicated this (eye-stone).

Warad-Sin 31

(1) Warad-Sin, king of Larsam, child of Kudur-mabuk.

Warad-Sin 32

(1) En-ane-du, en priestess of Nanna in Urim, child of Kudur-mabuk, sibling of Warad-Sin, king of Larsam.

Warad-Sin 33

(1) Rim-Sin, child of Warad-Sin, king of Larsam.

Cuneiform legal tablet in case from Aleppo

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay tablet from Alalakh still in clay envelope. Dated 1720 BC.

Cuneiform tablet- legal decision by appointed judges MET ME66 245 19a

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Old Assyrian Trading Colony; Cuneiform tablet; Clay-Tablets-Inscribed

Cuneiform tablet, legal document concerning a trial, Sumer, modern Iraq, c. 2037-2029 BC - Spurlock Museum, UIUC - DSC05943

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Exhibit in the Spurlock Museum, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign - Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA. This work is old enough so that it is in the public domain. CDLI: https://cdli.earth/artif

Hattusa Bronze Tablet Cuneiform

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Bronze tablet from Çorum-Boğazköy dating from 1235 BC. Photographed at Museum of Anatolian Civilisations. This cuneiform document excavated at Hattusa in 1986 is the only bronze tablet found in Anatol

Hittite Cuneiform Tablet- Legal Deposition(?)

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Tablet on display at the Oriental Institute , with the caption: Hittite Cuneiform Tablet: Legal Deposition(?) Baked clay Hattusha Late Bronze Age (13th century BC) A6004 A6004 - VBot 30 - CTH 832

Tablet BM131452

Tablet image sourced from Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0). No scholarly translation referenced in source metadata. Source description: Clay cuneiform tablet of a legal case before Saustatar, King of Mitanni, involving Niqmepa, King of Alalakh. Dated 1550BC-1400BC.

~1754 BCE·Old BabylonianEditorial

Code of Hammurabi (stele)

Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.

~1340 BCE·Middle BabylonianEditorial

Amarna Letter EA 153 — Abi-milku of Tyre

Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.

Daily LifeLaw

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Adad-narari I 01

Lists the cities and peoples — Kassites, Gutians, Lullumê, Šubareans — subjugated by Adad-nārārī I, documenting Assyria's territorial expansion toward the Euphrates and into Mitanni's former heartland around 1300 BCE.

Adad-narari I 02

(36) (As for) the one who erases my inscribed name and writes his (own) name, or discards my commemorative inscriptions, hands (them) over for destruction, consigns (them) to oblivion, covers (them) with earth, burns (them) with fire, throws (them) into the water, puts (them) in a Taboo House where there is no visibility, or because of these curses he incites a stranger, a foreigner, a malignant enemy, (a man who speaks) another language, or anyone else (to do any of these things), or conceives of and does anything (injurious), (48) may the god Aššur, the exalted god, the one who dwells in…

Adad-narari I 03

(1) Adad-nārārī (I), king of the world, strong king, king of Assyria, son of Arik-dīn-ili, king of Assyria, son of Enlil-nārārī, (who was) also king of Assyria. (4) When Šattuara, king of the land Ḫanigalbat, rebelled against me and committed hostilities, I seized him by the command of (the god) Aššur, my lord, the one who comes to my aid, and the great gods who decide in my favor, and I brought him to my city, Aššur. I made him take an oath and allowed him to return to his land. Annually, as long as (he) lived, I regularly received his audience gift within my city, Aššur. (15) After his…

Adad-narari I 04

(37) At that time, the ... of the city Taidu had become dilapidated and I removed its dilapidated section(s). I restored it. I built (it) from its foundations to its crenellations. Moreover, I deposited my commemorative inscriptions (therein). (42b) In the future, may a future ruler, when that building becomes old and dilapidated, renovate its dilapidated section(s) (and) return my inscribed name to its place. [(The god) Aššur] will (then) listen to his prayers. (46) (As for) the one [who alters] my inscription and [my] name, may Aššur, my lord, [overthrow] his kingship. May the [goddess]…

Adad-narari I 05

(12) At that time, (as for) the wells [in] uncultivated [fields], which [...] before three wells [...] I added [...]. Beside [..., I built (it) from its [foundations to its crenellations. Moreover, I deposited my] commemorative inscriptions (therein).

Adad-narari I 06

A building inscription of Adad-nārārī I dedicating a standard to Ištar and invoking Aššur's favour for any future ruler who restores the monument — an early attestation of the Assyrian royal restoration formula that would persist for centuries.