Position in chronology
SAA 06 019. Šumu-lešir, Recruitment Officer, Buys an Estate (734-IX-26) (ADD 0415)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) Instead of their seals they impressed their fingernails. (fingernail impressions) (2) Fingernail of Nabû-ašared, fingernail of Mušallim-Aššur, (3) fingernail of Aššur-matu-taqqin, fingernail of Nabû-na'id, a total of 4 sons of Itu'ayu, owners of the land. (5) An estate of 14 hectares of land in cultivation, a house, a threshing floor and an orchard in Goldsmith Town — (7) Šumu-lešir, recruitment off[icer, has con]tracted and bought it [fo]r 20 [min]as of copper from [these] gentlemen, [the owners of the la]nd. (9) The money [is paid] comple[tely. Th]at [land] is purchased and acqu[ired.…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
ku-um NA₄.KIŠIB-MEŠ-šú-nu ṣu-pur-šú-nu iš-kun-nu / ṣu-pur mdPA—MAŠ ṣu-pur mmu-DI—aš-šur / ṣu-pur maš-šur—KUR—LAL-in ṣu-pur mdPA—⸢I⸣ / PAB 04 DUMU mKUR.i-tú-ʾa-a.a EN A.ŠÀ-MEŠ / É 14 ANŠE A.ŠÀ ina ma-az-za-ru-⸢ti⸣ / ⸢É⸣ ad-ru GIŠ.SAR ina ŠÀ URU.SIMUG.KUG.⸢GI⸣ / [ú]-piš-ma mMU—⸢GIŠ⸣ LÚv.mu-⸢šar⸣-ki-⸢su⸣ / [ina] ⸢ŠÀ 20*⸣ [MA].⸢NA⸣ URUDU-MEŠ TAv IGI LÚ-MEŠ-[e] o* / [an-nu-ti EN A].ŠÀ-MEŠ il-qi…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335358.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Theodore Kwasman and Simo Parpola , Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I: Tiglath-Pileser III through Esarhaddon (State Archives of Assyria, 6), 1991. 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/P335358/..
Translation excerpted from Kwasman, T. & Parpola, S. 1991. Legal Transactions of the Royal Court of Nineveh, Part I: Tiglath-Pileser III through Esarhaddon. SAA 6. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa06/P335358/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.