Position in chronology
SAA 06 258. Sale of Land (680-I-28) (ADD 0631)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Seal of Sin-šar-ilani, owner of the field and garden being sold. (stamp seal impressions) (3) A house, [a field, and a gar]den [...] (Break) (r 1) Witness Nabû-taklak, [...]. (r 2) Witness Aplu-iddina, archer. (r 3) Witness Šulmu-ahhe, ditto. (r 4) Witness Nergal-šarru-uṣur, son of Dayyan-Adad. (r 5) Witness Kalhayu, chariot driver. (r 6) Month Nisan (I), 28th day, eponym year of Dananu of Marqasa. (e. 1) The sown seed [is] als[o .......].
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/P335546/
Why it matters
Transliteration
NA₄.KIŠIB md30—MAN—DINGIR-MEŠ EN A.ŠÀ / GIŠ.SAR ta-da-ni / É [A.ŠÀ GIŠ].⸢SAR x⸣+[x x x x] / IGI mdAG—tak-lak [x x x] / IGI mA—MU LÚ.ma-ḫi-ṣu / IGI mDI-mu—PAB-MEŠ KI*.MIN / IGI mdMAŠ.MAŠ—MAN—PAB DUMU mDI.KUD—10 / IGI mURU.kal-ḫa-a.a LÚ.mu-kil—KUŠ.PA-MEŠ / ITI.BARAG UD 28-KÁM / lim-mu mdan-na-nu / šá URU.mar-qa-sa / ŠE.NUMUN ar-šú is-se*-⸢niš*⸣ [x x x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335546.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335546). 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/P335546/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.