Position in chronology
SAA 06 027. Zazi Buys 23 Hectares of Land (ADD 0434)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [An estate] of 1 hectare (of land) adjoining [......], the road to Ṣalli-ibši and (the estate of) ...[......]; (3) An estate of 2 hectares adjoining the royal road to Bit-[...], (the estate of) Urda-Nergal, the town of Bit-Kutî [...], and (the estate of) the palace personnel; (5) An estate of 1 he[ctare ...] adjoining the road of Bit-Kutî, (the estate of) [...-ba]ni, and the gate of Saggi[l ...]; (8) An estate of 1 hectare 2 decares adjoining (the estates of) [NN], Hanasi and Urda-Nergal; (9) An estate of 3 hectares adj[oining ...]-bani, Šamaš-iqbi, the side road of…
Source: 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/P335377/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[É] 01 ⸢ANŠE SUḪUR⸣ [x x x x x x x x x] / SUḪUR KASKAL URU.ṣal-li—ib*-ši ⸢SUḪUR⸣ m*⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / É 02 ANŠE SUḪUR KASKAL—MAN ša URU.É*—⸢x⸣+[x x (x)] / SUḪUR mARAD—U.GUR SUḪUR URU.É—⸢ku⸣-ti-⸢i*⸣ [x (x x)] / SUḪUR LÚv.ARAD—É.GAL É 01 ⸢ANŠE⸣ [x x x] SUḪUR / KASKAL URU.É—ku-ti-i [SUḪUR mdx]—⸢ba*-ni*⸣ / SUḪUR KÁ—dsa-gi-[il x x x]-⸢ṣa⸣ / É 01 ANŠE 2(bán) SUḪUR mDINGIR-⸢x⸣+[x x SUḪUR m]ḫa-na-si /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335377.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335377). source
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/P335377/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.