Position in chronology
SAA 14 011. The Lady Sinqi-Issar Receives a Slave Woman Instead of Silver (654-II-14) (ADD 0076)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 14(1) Instead of the silver, Belet-isse'a, maid of the harem manageress, shall serve Sinqi-Issar for life. (7) Month Iyyar (II), 14th day, eponym year of Aššur-naṣir. (r 1) Witness Nabû-šezibanni. (r 2) Witness Aššur-eṭiranni. (r 3) Witness Yamani. (r 4) Witness Šar-Issar. (r 5) Witness Isanayu.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 14 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
ku-um KUG.UD / MÍ.GAŠAN—KI-ia GÉME / ša MÍ.šá-kín-te / a-na MÍ.sin-qi—15 / a-di bal-laṭ-u-ni / ta-pal-làḫ-šu* / ITI.GUD UD 14-KAM / lim-mu maš-šur—PAB-ir / IGI mdPA—še-zib-a-ni / IGI maš-šur—KAR-ir-⸢a-ni⸣ / IGI mia-man-ni / IGI mIM—15 / IGI mi-⸢sa⸣-na-a.a
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335028.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P335028). 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/P335028/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.