Position in chronology
SAA 06 182. Envelope of the Preceding Text (683-X-25) (ADD 0122)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Two homers 5 seahs of wine belonging to Mannu-ki-Ninua (are) at the disposal of Partama. (4) He shall give the wine back [in] Iyyar (II) [in] Nineveh. (6) [If] he does not, he shall pay (in) [silver according to the mark]et price of Nineveh. (r 1) [Month Tebet] (X), 25th [day, eponym year of Man]nu-ki-Adad. (r 3) [Witness] Sananu. (r 4) Witness Šamaš-naṣir. Witness Nabû-nashir. (r 5) Witness Remut-ili. Witness Edu-šallim. (r 6) Witness Šamaš-taklak. Witness Zar-Issar. (r.e. 7) Witness Nabû-taklak.
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/P335073/
Why it matters
Transliteration
02 ANŠE 5(bán) GIŠ.GEŠTIN-MEŠ / ša mman-nu—ki—NINA.KI / ina IGI mpar-ta-a-ma / [ina] ITI.GUD GIŠ.GEŠTIN-MEŠ / [ina] ⸢URU⸣.ni-nu-a SUM-an / [šúm-mu] ⸢là i-di⸣-ni / [ki ma]-⸢ḫi⸣-ri ša NINA.KI / [KUG.UD] SUM-an / [ITI.AB UD] ⸢25⸣-KÁM / [lim-me mman]-nu—ki—dIM / [IGI m]sa-na-a-nu / IGI mdUTU—PAB-ir IGI mdPA—na-sa-⸢ḫir*⸣ / IGI mrém-ut—DINGIR IGI mDIL—šal-lim / IGI mdUTU—tak-lak IGI mNUMUN—15 / IGI mdPA—tak-lak
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335073.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335073). 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/P335073/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.