Position in chronology
SAA 06 246. Dannaya Buys a Slave (ADD 0251)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 6(Beginning destroyed) (seal space) (1) Akbaru, [son of] Mannu-ki-ahhe, [a servant] of Nabû-ahu-[iddina] — (4) Danna[ya] has contracted and bo[ught] him for 1/2 mina of silver. (6) The money is paid completely. [That man] is purchased and acquired. Any revocation, law[suit] or litigation is void. (8) Whoever in the future, at any time, lodges a complaint, whether Nabû-ahu-iddina or his sons or gran[dsons], and s[eeks a lawsuit] or litigation [agai]nst Dannaya and [his] so[ns, shall return the money tenfold to] its [own]ers. [He shall contest in his lawsuit and not succe]ed. (Break) (r 1) Witness Ahi-qam, merchant (from the) king's staff. (r 3) Witness Ahiqar, [...]. (r 4) Witness Banay[a, ...]. (r 5) Witness Nab[û-...], scribe. (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 6 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
mak-ba-ru ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / mman-nu—ki-i—PAB-MEŠ [ARAD-šú] / šá mdPA—PAB—[AŠ] / ú-piš-ma mdan-⸢na⸣-[a] / ina ŠÀ 1/2 MA.NA KUG.UD ⸢il⸣-[qi] / kas-pu gam-mur ta-din [LÚ šu-a-tú] / za-rip laq-qi tú-a-⸢ru de⸣-[e-nu] / DUG₄.DUG₄ la-áš-šú man-nu šá ina ⸢ur-kiš⸣ / ina ma-te-ma i-zaq-qup-an-⸢ni⸣ / lu-u m⸢dPA—PAB—AŠ⸣ lu-u ⸢DUMU⸣-MEŠ-šú / lu-u ⸢DUMU⸣—[DUMU-MEŠ-šú] ⸢TAv⸣ mdan-na-a / u ⸢DUMU⸣-[MEŠ-šú 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 P335198.
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/P335198/..
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/P335198/.
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.