Position in chronology
SAA 14 089. Nabu-šarru-ka’’in Lends Offerings and Silver (650-IV) (ADD 0147)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 5 bread offering-tables including their huhurtu breads, 10 (loaves) of huhurtu bread of 1 'litre' each, with utensils, and 6 shekels of silver belonging to the Sibitti and belonging to Nabû-šarru-ukin, at the disposal of Ša-la-maše and at the disposal of Girittu. (r 1) The silver shall increase by a fourth. He shall pay the bread on the day that (Nabû-šarru-ukin) demands it. (r 3) Month Tammuz (IV), [...]th da[y], eponym year of Bel-šadu'a. (r 5) Witness Nabû-uballissu. (r 6) Witness Nabû-balassu-iqbi. (r 7) Witness Ubru-Nabû. (r.e. 8) Witness Nabû-ahu-iddina. (r.e. 9) Witness Babilayu.
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/P335098/
Why it matters
Transliteration
05* NINDA GIŠ.BANŠUR-MEŠ / a-di ḫu-ḫu-ra-te-ši-na / 10 ḫu-ḫu-ra-a-te / ša 01 qa-a.a / ša ú-na-a-te / 06 GÍN-MEŠ KUG.UD ša d7.BI / ša mdPA—MAN—GIN-in / ina IGI mšá—la—maš-e / ina IGI mgi-rit-ti / KUG.UD a-na 04-tú-šú GAL-bi / NINDA-MEŠ UD-mu šá e-ri-šú-u-ni / SUM-an ITI.ŠU ⸢UD⸣ [x]-⸢KÁM⸣ / lim-mu mEN—KUR-u-a / IGI mdPA—TI-su / IGI mdPA—TI-su—E / IGI mSUḪUŠ—dPA / IGI mdPA—PAB—AŠ / IGI mKÁ.DINGIR-a.a
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335098.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335098). 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/P335098/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.