Position in chronology
SAA 06 138. Purchase of Three Slaves (693) (ADD 0243)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Šulmu-beli, owner of the people being sold. (cylinder seal impression) (3) Ahabû, [...; NN], ca[mel] driver, (and) [his wife] Rimutt[u]; a total of 3 persons, [servants] of Šul[mu-beli] — (8) [...] has contracted and bought them from Šulmu-beli for three minas of silver by the mina of the king. (11) The money is paid completely. Those people are purchased and acquired. Any revocation, lawsuit, or litigation [is] void. (15) Whoever in the futu[re, at any time, lodges a com]plaint, [whether Šulmu-beli or] his [so]ns, [grandsons or relat]ives, [and seeks a lawsuit or liti]gation…
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/P335190/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mDI-mu—EN / EN UN-MEŠ ta-⸢da⸣-ni / mPAB-bu-ú ⸢LÚ⸣.[x x mx x] / LÚ.UŠ—ANŠE.AB.[BA-MEŠ] / MÍ.ri-mu-⸢tú⸣ <[x> MÍ-šú] / PAB 03 ⸢ZI⸣-[MEŠ ARAD-MEŠ] / ša mDI-⸢mu⸣—[EN] / ú-piš-ma m⸢x⸣+[x x x]+⸢x x⸣ / TAv IGI mDI-mu—EN / ina ŠÀ-bi 03 MA.NA KUG.UD ina 01 MA.NA-e ša MAN / il-qi* kas-pu ga-mur / ta-din UN-MEŠ šu-a-tú / zar₄-pu laq-qi-ú / ⸢tu⸣-a-ru de-e-nu DUG₄.DUG₄ / la-áš-šú* man-nu* ša* ur-kiš*…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335190.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335190). 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/P335190/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.