Position in chronology
SAA 06 077. Bahianu Loans Three Homers of Barley (682-I-25) (ADD 0136)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) One homer and two seahs of barley — Sin-šarru-uṣur, (3) 7 seahs — Nergal-ašared, (4) 7 seahs — Remutti-ili, (5) 7 seahs — Dayyan-Kurbail (fingernail impressions) (6) belonging to Bahianu, at their disposal. They have taken it as a loan. (9) Month Iyyar (II), 25th day, eponym year of Nabû-šarru-u[ṣur].
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/P335087/
Why it matters
Transliteration
01 ANŠE 2(bán) ŠE.PAD-MEŠ / m30—MAN—PAB / 7(bán) mU.GUR—MAŠ / 7(bán) mre-mut-ti—DINGIR / 7(bán) mDI.KUD—kur-ba-ìl / ša mba-ḫi-a-ni / ina pa-ni-šú-nu / ina pu-u-ḫi it-ta-ṣu / ITI.GUD UD 25*-[KÁM*] / lim-mu mdPA—MAN—⸢PAB⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335087.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335087). 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/P335087/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.