Position in chronology
SAA 06 336. Remanni-Adad Buys an Estate in the Province of Arrapha (ADD 0419)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [under irr]igation, a vi[neyard ......]; (2) 10 hectares of land, one vine[yard ......] (3) [...] village of Dannaya [......] (4) [... vill]age of Zumbi [......], a barnyard (5) [...] in the town of Šamaš-riqa; in all 580 hectares of land, 10 vineyards, 6 irrigated gardens, and houses in the district of Arrapha, [bel]onging to Marduk-eriba, Riba-ahhe and Kenî, in Šamaš-r[iqa] — (8) Remanni-Adad, [chief] chariot dri[ver o]f Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, has contracted and bo[ught] (said property) from [these gentlemen] fo[r ......] documents. (r 1) The money is paid…
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/P335362/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[É ši]-qi* ⸢GIŠ⸣.[SAR GIŠ.til-lit x x x x x x x x x É] / 10 ANŠE A.ŠÀ ⸢01*⸣ GIŠ.SAR ⸢GIŠ*⸣.[til-lit x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x] URU.ŠE—dan*-a.⸢a⸣ [x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x x⸣ / [x x x x URU].⸢ŠE*⸣—m*zu*-um*-bi ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ tal-pi-tú / [x x x x] ina URU.dUTU—ri-qa PAB-ma ⸢05⸣ me 80 ANŠE A.ŠÀ-MEŠ 10 GIŠ.SAR-MEŠ / ⸢GIŠ*.til*-lit*⸣ 06 GIŠ.SAR-MEŠ ⸢ši*⸣-qi A-MEŠ É*-MEŠ* ina na-gi-i KUR.arrap-ḫa…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian legal transaction at the royal court of Nineveh, edited by Theodore Kwasman & Simo Parpola (SAA 6, 1991). ORACC text P335362.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P335362). 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/P335362/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.