Position in chronology
SAA 14 189. Barruqu Buys […] (ADD 0483)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [The money] is paid [completely. That ... is purc]hased and acquired. [Any revocation, law]suit, or litig[ation is void]. (5) [Whoever] in the future, [at any time], lodg[es] a complaint and breaks the contract, [whether] Marduk-šarru-uṣur or [his sons] (or) his grandsons o[r ...], [and seeks] a lawsuit or [litigation] aga[inst] Ba[rr]uqu (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/P335422/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ qi ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x] ta-din LÚv.[x x] / [x x x za]-rip laq-qi [tu-a-ru] / [de]-e-nu DUG₄.[DUG₄ la-áš-šú] / [man-nu] šá ina ur-kiš [ina ma-te-ma] / i-za-qu-pa-[an-ni] / i-GIL-u-ni [lu-u] / mdŠÚ—MAN—PAB lu-u [DUMU-MEŠ-šú] / DUMU—DUMU-MEŠ-šú ⸢lu⸣-[u x x x x] / šá de-e-nu [DUG₄.DUG₄] / ⸢TA⸣ m⸢bar-ruq?⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335422.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335422). 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/P335422/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.