Position in chronology
SAA 14 245. Purchase of Slaves (ADD 0291)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 14(Beginning destroyed) (1) The mone[y is paid completely], [these] people [are purchased and] (3) ac[quired ...] (Break) (r 1) [He shall contest in] his [la]wsuit [and not succeed]. (r 3) [Witness] Nabû'a, [...]. (r 4) [Witness] Nabû-le'i, [...]. (r 5) [Witn]ess Bel-aplu-iddina, [...]. (r 6) [Wi]tness Atar-suli, [...]. (r 7) Witness Arbaila[yu]. (r 8) Witness Mannu-ki-a[hhe]. (r 9) Witness Urdu-Inurta, [...]. (r 10) Witness Gadia. (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 14 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
kas-⸢pu⸣ [gam-mur ta-din] / UN-MEŠ [x x x x x x] / la-[qi-u x x x x] / [ina de]-ni-šú [DUG₄.DUG₄-ma] / [la] i-[laq-qi] / [IGI] mna-bu-u-a [x x] / [IGI] mdPA—ZU [x x] / ⸢IGI⸣ mEN—A—AŠ [x x] / ⸢IGI⸣ ma-tar—su-li [x x] / IGI mURU.arba-ìl-[a.a] / IGI mman-nu—ki-i—⸢PAB⸣-[MEŠ] / IGI mARAD—dMAŠ? [x x] / IGI mga-di-ia
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335236.
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/P335236/..
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/P335236/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.