Position in chronology
SAA 06 332. Remanni-Adad Buys Land, People and Vineyards (ADD 0433+)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) owner of the people, land, and vineyar[ds being sold]. (cylinder seal impression) (2) An estate of 10 hectares of land by the seah of 9 'litres'; (3) one vineyard adjoining the river Ilabb[iašu], the vinyeard of Šarru-lu-dari, and the riv[er ...]; (5) one vineyard adjoining the vineyard of [...], the Ilabbiašu [river], and [...]; (6) [a barnyard in its] entirety [adjoining ......, the garden o]f Aya[......] (Break) (r 1) [He shall return the money ten]fold to [its owners]. He shall contest [in his lawsuit] and [not succeed]. (r 3) [Witness Ner]gal-šarru-uṣur, [chief…
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/P335376/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢EN⸣ UN-MEŠ A.⸢ŠÀ⸣ GIŠ.⸢SAR⸣-[MEŠ ta-da-ni] / É 10 ANŠE A.ŠÀ ina GIŠ.BÁN ša 09 ⸢qa⸣ / 01 GIŠ.SAR til-lit SUḪUR ÍD.i-lab-⸢bi⸣-[a-šú] / SUḪUR GIŠ.SAR ša mMAN—lu—dà-ri SUḪUR ⸢ÍD*⸣.[x x] / 01 GIŠ.SAR til-lit SUḪUR GIŠ.SAR ša ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / ⸢SUḪUR*⸣ [ÍD].⸢i*⸣-lab-bi-a-šú SUḪUR [x x x x x] / [É tal-pi-tú a]-⸢na⸣ gi-mir-⸢ti⸣-[šú SUḪUR x x x x] / [SUḪUR GIŠ.SAR] ⸢ša⸣ ma.a—⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [kas-pu…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335376.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335376). 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/P335376/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.