Position in chronology
SAA 06 177. Purchase of Slaves (684-II-8) (ADD 0230)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Nabû-eriba, owner of the people being sold. (cylinder seal impression) (3) Kandalanu, his 3 sons, wife and two daughters, his brother and his two sons — (5) Ululayu has contracted and bought them from Nabû-eriba for 6 minas of silver by the mina of Carchemish. (9) The money is paid completely. Those people are purchased and acquired. (11) Whoever in the future, at any time, breaks the contract, whether Nabû-eriba or the governor or the deputy (governor), and seeks a lawsuit or litig[ation], shall pay 12 minas of silver. (r 1) Witness Nabû-le'ani, 'third man.' (r 3) Witness…
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/P335177/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB mdAG—SU / EN UN-MEŠ SUM-ni / mkan-da-la-nu ⸢03⸣ DUMU-MEŠ-šú / MÍ-šú 02 DUMU.MÍ-⸢MEŠ⸣-šú ŠEŠ-šú 02 DUMU-MEŠ-šú / ú-piš-ma mITI.⸢KIN⸣-a.a / TAv* IGI mdAG*—SU ina ŠÀ-bi / 06* MA.NA KUG.UD ina 01 MA.NA-e / ša URU.gar-ga-mis il-qi / kas-pu gam-mur ta-din UN-MEŠ / šu-a-te zar₄-pu laq-qi-u / man-nu šá ina ur-kiš ina ma-te-ma GIL-u-ni / lu-u mdPA—SU lu-u LÚ.EN.NAM lu-u LÚ.02-u / ša de-e-nu…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335177.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335177). 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/P335177/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.