Position in chronology
SAA 06 071. Bahianu Loans Two Homers of Barley (685-I-27) (ADD 0131)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Two homers of barley belonging to Bahianu, at the disposal of Astaqumme. (stamp seal impression) (4) He took it as a loan. It shall increase by 3 seahs per homer. (r 1) Month Nisan (I), 27th day, (stamp seal impression) (r 2) eponym year of Aššur-da''inanni.
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/P335082/
Why it matters
Transliteration
02 ANŠE ŠE.PAD-MEŠ / ša mba-ḫi-a-ni / ina IGI mas-ta-qu-um-me / ina pu-u-ḫi it-ti-ši / a-na 01 :. 3(bán)-a.a / ta-rab-bi / ITI.BARAG UD 27-KÁM / lim-me maš-šur—KALAG-in—MAN
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335082.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335082). 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/P335082/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.