Position in chronology
SAA 06 202. Mannu-ki-Arbail Buys a Vineyard in Kipšuna (680-IV-18) (ADD 0359)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Balṭaya, scribe, owner of the vineyard being sold. (space for stamp seal impressions) (4) A vineyard in the city of Kipšuna adjoining the garden of Ahu-illika, the canal of ditto of Urbayu, and the foundation of a well — (9) Mannu-ki-Arbail has contracted and bought it from Balṭaya [for] 4 minas of silver (by the mina) of Carchemish. (13) The money [is pa]id completely. That vineyard [is purch]ased and acquired. Any revocation, [lawsuit], or litigation is void. (r 1) [Whoever] in [the fut]ure, [at any t]ime, lodges a complaint [and breaks] the contract, shall pay 12 minas of…
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/P335303/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢NA₄.KIŠIB mbal⸣-ṭa-a.a / LÚv.A.⸢BA*⸣ EN GIŠ.SAR / ša GIŠ.til-lit-[ti*] SUM-ni / GIŠ.SAR ša GIŠ.til-lit-ti* / ina URU.kip-šu-na / SUḪUR GIŠ.SAR ša mPAB—⸢DU⸣-ka / SUḪUR ÍD :. ša mur-⸢ba-a.a⸣ / SUḪUR ⸢SUḪUŠ?⸣ bur-ti* / [ú]-⸢piš⸣-ma mman-nu—⸢ki-i—arba⸣-ìl / ⸢TAv⸣ IGI mbal-ṭa-a.a / [ina] ŠÀ 04 ⸢MA⸣.NA KUG.UD / ⸢ša⸣ URU.gar-ga-mis / ⸢il⸣-qi kas-pu gam-mur / ⸢SUM*⸣-ni GIŠ.⸢SAR⸣ šu-a-⸢tú⸣ / [za]-⸢rip⸣…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335303.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335303). 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/P335303/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.