Position in chronology
SAA 12 098. Aššur-reṣuwa Donates Property and People to Nabu (SAAB 01 59)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To Nabû, great lord, his lord, Aššur-reṣuwa [has dedicated] for the preservation of his life and the prolongation of his days: a house in the city of Calah; an estate of 30 homers of tax-exempt land in the village of Mallaṣi; Remanni-Ištar, a farmer and 3 persons (of his family); Nabû-qata-ṣabat, Nabû-nashir and Ṣil-Nabû, a shepherd and 3 persons (of his family), with his sheep; Kapar-ili, a baker; an estate of 12 homers of land in the town of Urad-Ištar, the farmer ...... (Break) (r 14) May Marduk, king of heaven and earth [impose on him] a heavy punishment, [may] Gula, the great physician, [visit him with a curse] which cannot be cured ...... (r 19) May [DN], ferocious hero [......] smite him with his weapons.
Source: 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/P336797/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na dPA EN GAL-e ⸢U⸣-šú maš-šur—re-ṣu-u-a / a-na TI.LA ZI-MEŠ-šú GÍD UD-me-šú / É ina URU.kal-ḫi É 30 ANŠE A.ŠÀ / za-ku-ti ina? URU.ŠE—ma-al-la-ṣi / mrém-ni—15 LÚ.ENGAR 03 ZI mdPA—ŠU.2—DIB-bat / mdPA—NIGIN-ḫír mṣil—dPA LÚ.SIPA 03 ZI / a-di UDU-MEŠ-šú mka-par—DINGIR LÚ.NINDA / É 12 ANŠE A.ŠÀ ina URU šá mARAD—15 LÚ.ENGAR ⸢x⸣+[x] / ⸢LÚ.x x⸣ LUGAL ma-⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / mna-šá-x x x [x x x x x x x x]…
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P336797.
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/P336797/..
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/P336797/.
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.