Position in chronology
SAA 12 006. Adad-nerari III Grants a Field to a Eunuch (NARGD 02)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 12(1) [Adad-nerari (III), overseer, son of Šamši-Adad (V), overseer, son of Shalmaneser (III), likewise overseer]. (two royal seal impressions) (4) An estate [... of x] hectar[es of land] (Break) (7) [(under the authority) of] Bel-[ta]rṣi-[ilum]ma, prefect of Calah, Adad-nerari (III), king of Assyria, exempted (from taxes) and gave to [Nabû-d]ur-beliya, his eunuch. (r 3) The corn taxes of this field shall not be collected, the straw taxes shall not be gathered. (r 6) [The gov]ernor (and) the pr[efe]ct [shall not] e[xercise authority] over [them; ...]. (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 12 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[mdIM—ERIM.GABA PA-lum] / [DUMU mšam-ši—dIM PA-lum] / [DUMU mdDI-ma-nu—MAŠ PA-lum-ma] / ⸢É?⸣ [(x x) x x x x] ⸢ANŠE⸣ [A.ŠÀ] / [(x x) x x x] ⸢x URU?⸣-a.a / [(x x) x x x]+⸢x x⸣ sa qi [(x) (x)] / [ša? md]EN—⸢tar⸣-ṣi—[DINGIR]-ma / [LÚ.GAR].KUR ⸢URU⸣.kal-ḫa / md⸢IM—ERIM.GABA LUGAL⸣ KUR—aš-šur / ú-[zak]-ki-⸢ma⸣ / [a]-⸢na⸣ [mdPA?]—⸢BÀD?⸣—EN-ia / ⸢LÚ⸣.šá—⸢SAG⸣-šu id-din / ⸢ša⸣ A.ŠÀ.GA šu-a-tum /…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P336249.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Laura Kataja and Robert M. Whiting, Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period (State Archives of Assyria, 12), 1995. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336249/..
Translation excerpted from Kataja, L. & Whiting, R. 1995. Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period. SAA 12. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa12/P336249/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.