Position in chronology
SAA 06 060. Bahianu Loans Three Homers of Barley (704-I) (ADD 0141)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) 3 homers of barley, capital — (2) Šamaš-ahu-uṣur has taken it as a loan from Bahianu. (fingernail impressions) (r 1) Month Nisan (I), 1st day, (fingernail impressions) (r 2) eponym year of Nabû-denu-epuš.
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/P335092/
Why it matters
Transliteration
03 ANŠE ŠE.PAD-MEŠ SAG.⸢DU⸣ / mdUTU—PAB—PAB / TAv IGI mba-ḫi-a-ni / ina pu-u-ḫi it-ti-ši / ITI.BARAG UD ⸢01?⸣-KÁM / lim-me mdPA—de-e-nu—DÙ-uš
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335092.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335092). 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/P335092/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.