Position in chronology
SAA 06 132. Sale of a Slave (695) (ADD 0616)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(1) Bel-Harran-issiya, [...]; Mannu-ki-[...], cavalryman ditto; Kiṣir-[Aššur, ...]; a total of 3 owners of the man being so[ld]. (fingernail impressions) (5) Maku[..., servant] of Bel-Harran-issi[ya, Mannu-ki-...] and Kiṣir-Aššur — (7) [they have contracted and sold] him to Silim-[Aššur]. Whoever pays 4 1/2 minas of silv[er], shall redeem his servant. (11) Witness Aššur-ahu-iddina, cohort commander. (b.e. 13) Witness Na'id-Aššur, ar[chitect]. (r 1) Witness Adad-[...], brother of [NN]. (r 3) (Break) (e. 1) [Month ...], 15th [day, eponym year of] Aššur-belu-uṣur.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
mEN—KASKAL—⸢KI?-ia? LÚv.x⸣ [x x] / mman-nu—ki—[x LÚv].BAD-ḪAL : / mki-⸢ṣir?⸣—[aš-šur x x x] / PAB 03 EN-MEŠ LÚv SUM-ni / mma-ku-[x x x x ARAD-su-nu] / ša md.EN—KASKAL—⸢KI?⸣-[ia ša mman-nu—ki—x] / ša mki-⸢ṣir?⸣—aš-šur [ú-tap-pi-šu] / a-na msi-lim—[aš-šur? i-tan-nu] / man-nu ša 04 1/2 MA.NA KUG.UD SUM-an-[u-ni] / ARAD-⸢šu?⸣ ú-še-ṣa / IGI maš-šur—PAB—AŠ / LÚv.GAL—ki-ṣir / IGI mI—aš-šur…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335533.
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/P335533/..
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/P335533/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.