Position in chronology
SAA 06 088. Ahi-ṭalli, Harem Woman, Buys a Girl (687-XI-12) (ADD 0317)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of the woman Daliya, owner of the girl being sold. (blank seal space) (3) Ana-abi-dalati, her daughter of 5 spans — (5) Ahi-ṭalli, harem woman, has contracted and bought her from Daliya for 1/2 mina of silver. (9) The money is paid completely. That girl is purchased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit, or litigation is void. (13) [Whoever] at any time [in the future lodges a complaint ...] (Break) (r 9) [Witne]ss [...]. (r 10) [Witness] Nabû-ahu-[...]. (r 11) [Month] Shebat (XI), 22nd day, [epo]nym year of Sennacherib, king of Assyria.
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/P335262/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB MÍ.da-li-ia-a / EN MÍ.TUR SUM-ni / ⸢MÍ*⸣.a-na—AD—da-la-ti / ⸢DUMU⸣.MÍ-sa 05 ru-ṭu / ⸢ú⸣-piš-ma MÍ.PAB—ṭal-li / MÍ.ERIM—É.GAL TAv IGI / MÍ.da-li-ia-a ina ŠÀ / 1/2 MA.NA KUG.UD il-qí / kas-pu gam-mur ta-ad-din / MÍ.TUR šu-a-tú / zar-pat laq-qí-at / tu-a-ru de-e-nu DUG₄.DUG₄ / la-áš-šú [man]-⸢nu⸣ šá* ina ur-kiš / [ina ma-te-ma i-za-qup-an-ni] / ⸢GIL?⸣-[u-ni x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x] /…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335262.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335262). 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/P335262/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.