Position in chronology
SAA 14 273. (no title) (ADD 0553)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (stamp seal impression) (Break) (r 1) [......] to (r 2) [......] (r 3) [......] (r 4) [... Aššur-garu]a-niri (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/P335482/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢a-na⸣ / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ši-na / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-a.a / [x x maš-šur—ga-ru]-a—ni-ri
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P335482.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335482). 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/P335482/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.