Position in chronology
SAA 06 059. Marduk-[…], Sennacherib’s [...], Buys Slaves (684-XIIa-14) (ADD 0255)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) Seal of Bel-abu-uṣur, own[er of the people being sold]. (cylinder seal impression) (2) Barahu including [his] people, Ṭabuni including [his] pe[ople, and S]itirkanu inclu[ding his people, a]ll (of them) in [their] enti[rety] — (6) Marduk-[..., the ...] of Senna[cherib, king of Assyria], has contracted [and bought them fro]m Bel-ab[u-uṣur] for a talent of [copper]. (10) [The money is paid] comple[tely]. (Break) (r 1) Witness Nabû-eṭira[nni, ...]. (r 2) Witness Nabû-mudammiq, [...]. (r 3) Witness Bab-Tinurayu, temple stewa[rd ...]. (r 4) Witness Šamaš-šumu-uṣur, priest of [...]. (r 5)…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mEN—AD—PAB ⸢EN⸣ [UN-MEŠ SUM-ni] / mba-ra-a-ḫu a-di UN-⸢MEŠ⸣-[šú] / ⸢m⸣ṭa-bu-ni a-di ⸢UN⸣-[MEŠ-šú] / [m]⸢si⸣-ti-ir-ka-a-nu a-[di UN-MEŠ-šú] / ⸢gab⸣-bu a-na gi-⸢mir⸣-[ti-šú-nu] / ú-piš-ma mdMES—[x x x x x x] / ša md30—PAB-⸢MEŠ⸣—[SU MAN KUR—aš-šur.KI] / i-na ŠÀ bi-⸢lat⸣ [URUDU-MEŠ] / [TAv] ⸢IGI⸣ mEN—⸢AD⸣—[PAB il-qi] / [kas-pu] ga-[mur ta-din] / [x x x] x x [x x x x] / IGI…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335202.
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/P335202/..
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/P335202/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.