Position in chronology
SAA 14 252. Purchase of a Vegetable Garden (ADD 0367)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 14(1) Seal of Nergal-uballissu, (2) seal of Nergal-upni'a, (3) [in all 2] men, [sons of ...]..., (4) porter of [...] of the city, [owner] of the veget[able] garden [(and) ...] being sold. (space for seal impressions) (Break) (r 1) [Witness] Nabû-šezib, [...].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 14 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mdU.GUR—ú-⸢bal⸣-liṭ-su / NA₄.KIŠIB mdU.GUR—up*-⸢ni*⸣-ia / [PAB 02] LÚ-MEŠ-⸢e⸣ [A mx x x]-MEŠ-šú / [LÚ].Ì.DU₈ šá [x x x x x x] ⸢URU⸣ / [EN] GIŠ.SAR šá ⸢Ú*⸣.[SAR x x x x SUM]-⸢ni*⸣ / [IGI m]⸢d⸣PA—še-zib LÚ.[x x x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335311.
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/P335311/..
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/P335311/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.