Position in chronology
SAA 14 195. Inurta-ahu-iddina Buys a Slave (ADD 0280)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 14(Beginning destroyed) (seal space) (Break) (3) Inurta-ahu-iddina has [contracted] and bought him [from] Dannu-Nergal [for x mi]nas of copper. (6) [The money] is paid [compl]etely. [Tha]t [...] is purchased and [acquired. Any rev]ocation, lawsuit, or [litigation is v]oid. (9) Whoever in the future, [at any tim]e, lodges a complaint, [whether D]annu-Nergal [or his sons or his grands]ons, (r 2) and seeks [a lawsuit or] litigation [against] Inurta-ahu-iddina, (r 4) shall give [x minas] of silver. (r 5) (Guaranteed against) [seizures of epilepsy] for 100 days (and against) [fraud] forever. (r 7) [He shall return the money] tenfold to its owner. [He shall contest] in his non-lawsuit and not succeed. (r 10) [......] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 14 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[x x x x]-zu?-za [x x x x] / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-a šá ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [ú-piš-ma] mdMAŠ—PAB—⸢AŠ⸣ / [TAv IGI m]dan-nu—dU.GUR / [ina ŠÀ x MA].NA URUDU-MEŠ il-qi / [kas-pu gam]-mur ta-din-ni / [x x x šú-a]-tu za-rip / [la-qi tu]-a-ru de-e-nu / [DUG₄.DUG₄] ⸢la⸣-a-šu man-nu ša ⸢ina ur-kiš⸣ / [ina ma-te]-⸢ma⸣ i-za-qu-pa-⸢ni⸣ / [lu-u m]⸢dan⸣-nu—[d]⸢U.GUR⸣ / [lu-u DUMU-MEŠ-šú lu-u DUMU]—⸢DUMU⸣-MEŠ-[šú] /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335227.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Raija Mattila, Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part II: Assurbanipal Through Sin-šarru-iškun (State Archives of Assyria, 14), 2002. Lemmatised by Melanie Groß, 2010–2011, as part of the FWF-funded research project "Royal Institutional Households in First Millennium BC Mesopotamia" (S 10802-G18) directed by Heather D. Baker at the University of Vienna. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P335227/..
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/P335227/.
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.