Position in chronology
SAA 14 019. Ninuayu Buys Two Slaves (ADD 0249)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) Asalluhi-hutnu, Addî, his brother, in all 2 persons, servants of Hudaya — (5) Ninuayu, eunuch of the king, has contracted and bought them for one mina and 30 shekels of silver by the mina of Carchemish from Hudaya. (10) The money is paid completely. Those [people] are purch[ased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsui]t, or lit[igation] is [v]oid. (14) Whoev[er in the future], or at any time, breaks the contract, whether Hudaya or his sons (or) his grandsons, and seeks a lawsuit or litigation against Ninuayu, (r 6) shall place 10 minas of silver (and) 2 minas of gold in…
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/P335196/
Why it matters
Transliteration
mdASAR.LÚ.ḪI—ḫu-ut-nu / ma-di-i ŠEŠ-šu / PAB 02 LÚ.ZI-MEŠ ARAD-MEŠ-ni / ša mḫu-da-a.a / ú-piš-ma mNINA.KI-a.a / LÚ.SAG šá LUGAL / ina ŠÀ-bi 01 MA.NA 30 GÍN KUG.UD / ina ma-né-e šá KUR.gar-ga-mis / TAv IGI mḫu-da-a.a / il-qí kas-pu gam-mur ta-din / [LÚv]-MEŠ šu-a-te za-⸢ar⸣-[pu] / [la-qí-u tu-a-ru] / [de-e]-⸢nu DUG₄⸣.[DUG₄] / [la]-áš-šu man-⸢nu⸣ [ša ina ur-kiš] / ù im—ma-te-⸢ma⸣ / i-GIL-u-ni /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335196.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Sippar-Yahrurum (mod. Tell Abu Habbah) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335196). 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/P335196/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.