Position in chronology
SAA 14 384. Purchase of a House (ADD 1266)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) S[eal of ...], owner of the house [being sold]. (cylinder seal impression) (3) A built house with [its doors], with its beams, [...], (5) adjoining Dadî, adjoini[ng ...], (6) adjoining [......] (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/P336026/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[NA₄].⸢KIŠIB⸣ [mx x x] / EN É [SUM-a-ni] / É ep-šú a-di GIŠ.[IG-MEŠ-šú] / a-di GIŠ.ÙR-MEŠ-šú [x x x x] / SUḪUR mU.U-i ⸢SUḪUR⸣ [x x x x] / SUḪUR m⸢x⸣+[x x 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 P336026.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336026). 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/P336026/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.