Position in chronology
SAA 14 428. Inurta-šarru-uṣur Lends Donkey Legs (*626-I) (TIM 11 05)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Ila-eriba, son of Aṣil-Iau, from the village of Zanbayu. (4) 220 legs of donkey-mares (seal impressions) (6) belonging to Inurta-šarru-uṣur, are at his disposal. (7) He shall give them in month Tammuz (IV) in Nineveh. (r 1) If he does not give, it shall increase by the [s]ame amount. (r 3) Witness Ayahi. (r 4) Witness Inurta-sukki. (r 5) Witness Šepe-Inurta-aṣbat. (r 6) Witness Nabû-ban-apli. (e. 1) Witness Aššur-uballiṭ. (e. 2) Witness Adad-aplu-iddina. (e. 3) Month Nisan (I), eponym year of Iqbi-ilani.
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/P224948/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mDINGIR-la?—SU / A ma-ṣil—ia-a-u / TAv ŠÀ URU.za-an-ba-a.a / 02 me 20 ri?-ta-te / ša [x]+⸢x⸣ du [x]+⸢x⸣ / ša mdMAŠ—MAN—PAB / ina IGI-šú ina ITI.ŠU / ina NINA.KI ⸢SUM⸣-an / BE-ma la i-din / a-na ⸢mit⸣-ḫar GAL-bi / IGI ma.a-ḫi / IGI mdMAŠ—QÀL / IGI mGÌR.2—dMAŠ—aṣ-bat / IGI md⸢PA?⸣—DÙ—MAN / IGI maš-šur—TI / IGI <m>10—A—AŠ / ITI.BARAG / lim-mu mE—DINGIR-ME
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Raija Mattila (SAA 14, 2002). ORACC text P224948.
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/P224948/..
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/P224948/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.