Position in chronology
SAA 14 006. Milki-nuri Buys Land and People (ADD 0452)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [..., his] wife, [NN], gardener — (3) [Milki]-nuri, eunuch [of the que]en [has contracted and bought them] from Na'id-Aššur and [from Qur]di-Issar-lamur [for x minas of sil]ver by the mina of the king. (7) [The money] is paid [com]pletely. That [land and peo]ple are purchased [and acquired]. Any revocation, lawsuit or litigation is void. (r 3) [Whoever in the fu]ture, at any time, lodges a complaint, [whether the]se [men] or their sons [or their grandsons or] any relative of theirs [or ...]... (Rest destroyed)
Source: Mattila, R. 2002. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal through Sin-šarru-iškun. SAA 14. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa14/P335393/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x]+⸢x⸣ MÍ-[šú] / [mx x x] ⸢LÚv⸣.NU.GIŠ.⸢SAR⸣ / [ú-piš-ma mmil-ki]—ZÁLAG LÚv.SAG / [ša MÍ—É].⸢GAL⸣ TAv IGI mI—aš-šur / [TAv IGI m]⸢qur⸣-di—d15—la-mur / [ina ŠÀ x MA.NA KUG].UD ina ša MAN / [il-qí kas-pu] ⸢gam*⸣-mur ta-din / [A.ŠÀ] ⸢UN⸣-MEŠ* šú-a-tú za-rap-⸢pu⸣ / [laq-qi-u] tu-a-ru de-nu DUG₄.DUG₄ la-šú / [man-nu šá ina] ⸢ur⸣-kiš ina ma-te-ma i-za-qu-pa-ni / [lu-u LÚ-MEŠ-e an]-⸢nu⸣-te lu o* DUMU-MEŠ-šú-nu / [lu DUMU—DUMU-MEŠ-šú-nu lu] mám*-ma*-nu*-šú-nu / [lu x x x x x x] ⸢x x x⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335393.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335393). source
Translation excerpted from Mattila, R. 2002. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal through Sin-šarru-iškun. SAA 14. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa14/P335393/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.