Babylonian and Assyrian Laws, Contracts and Letters

It is not profitable to discuss these mere fragments of a code. The most interesting thing is their existence. We may one day recover the Code in full. These are not retranslati...

(M123) § 127. If a man has caused the finger to be pointed at a votary, or a man’s wife, and has not justified himself, that man shall be brought before the judges, and have his...

§ 232. If he has caused the loss of goods, he shall render back whatever he has destroyed. Moreover, because he did not make sound the house he built, and it fell, at his own co...

(M617) The money lent is often said to belong to a god. Ashur, Ishtar of Arbela, or Ishtar of Nineveh, are the most common. Sometimes it is said to be in “Ishtar heads,” which h...

(M347) During the Fourth Dynasty of Babylon, the celebrated Michaux Stone(286) records the gift of lands by a father to his daughter on her marriage. From Kassite times we have...

(M429) In later Babylonian times we have a very large number of examples of slave sales. So far as the formula of a deed of sale is concerned, there is nothing to distinguish fr...

(M556) In this particular case the words within quotation marks are written in Sumerian. The variations are slight as a rule, but enough to show that the scribe understood what...

(M223) The service on which the official might be engaged was evidently military and had risks. It is not certain whether the _dannatu_(77) is really a “fortress,” or a “defeat....

(M373) As long as she remained in her husband’s home she enjoyed to the full whatever she had brought there as a marriage-portion, whatever her husband had settled upon her, and...

M506 The temple as a business institution M507 The temple as a place of deposit and traffic M508 The temple staff M509 The priestly influence over the king M510 Their influence...

(M522) The right to receive these was a valuable and negotiable asset. Thus we read of a right to five days per year in the temple of Nannar, sixteen days per year in the temple...

M62 Witchcraft and the ordeal by water M63 False witness in capital suit M64 In civil case M65 Judgment once given not to be altered M66 Burglary and acceptance of stolen goods...

(M405) A curious case is where A, the daughter of B and C, endows D to take care of B and C. As long as D lives A covenants to allow her so much. When she dies A will herself pe...

(M690) The Code has much to say about ships. Temples owned them, as well as private persons. It was a crime, punishable with death, to steal a ship.(733) We read of fees for bui...

Judging from the frequent mention of Ardi-Gula in other letters and that he wrote to the king about his sons, Ashurbânipal and Shamash-shum-ukîn, we may be sure the old courtier...

Thus we may conclude that Immarum, or Immerum—the difference in spelling is slight for these times—King of Sippar, bore the title of “king of the four quarters,” and as such was...

(M813) It is clear that Sin-shar-uṣur and Ummanigash had been intriguing against Sin-tabni-uṣur. There are several persons of the name Sin-shar-uṣur about this time. No less tha...

(M257) Documentary evidence might be demanded. The judges might decide to take the evidence of their own senses and go to see an estate or a house in dispute.(121) Or they might...

Kasha-Upi bought a house of Itti-itishu and his sons, Bêlshunu and Ilushu-bânî. Amêl-Ninshuna, son of Bêlshunu, brought a suit about the house. Judges condemn him to be branded...

(M320) Adultery was punished in the Code by drowning.(248) The Code in this and similar cases of sexual irregularity is explicit that the case must be flagrant. Suspicion was no...

(M754) The letters of Ḥammurabi are by far the most important collection of letters hitherto published for the period of the First Dynasty of Babylon. They had a certain adventi...

(M460) From the point of view of the ancient Babylonian, as from that of the modern lawyer, there was a great similarity about all classes of real property. The deeds of sale or...

Dedication Preface List Of Abbreviations Sources And Bibliography Laws And Contracts I. The Earliest Babylonian Laws II. The Code Of Ḥammurabi III. Later Babylonian Law IV. The...

(M485) There was always a militia, _Landwehr_, or territorial levy of troops. Each district had to furnish its quota. These are called _ṣâbê_, or _ummanâte_. We have no direct s...

(M37) A number of extracts from the legal documents of the third period have been given by Father V. Scheil in the _Receuil __ de Travaux_.(44) The full text is rarely given and...

(M780) Ammi-zadûga’s letters, five in number, all happen to be concerned with the annual sheep-shearing at Babylon. They differ slightly, in the person addressed, and the date a...

(M661) As the pledge did not always leave the debtor’s possession, the creditor only had a lien upon it. Hence the giver of the pledge had to guarantee that no creditor had a pr...

(M22) The documents of each group have marked characteristics in form of script, in orthography, in language. So great are the differences that a slight acquaintance with these...

While it is hoped that this volume will give a fairly complete account of what is really known and also point out some things that are reasonably conjectured to be true, it is f...

A mere glance at the contents of his other letters will show their connection with these events. In one,(864) he sends Naragê, a colonel, with twenty men who had plotted against...

may serve as an example, but does not convey much information to us. These lists are chiefly valuable for the means of comparison they afford. A three-year-old ox was worth half...

Bond, written deed or contract sealed: Assyrian, of great length, 231 body of the deed uniform, 229 deed of house sale, 241 destroyed on payment, 260 drawn by scribe, 83 for ado...

King: could impress laborers, 205 endowed temples, 195, 208 _sq._ gave loans, 258; often before harvest, or at seed-time, 258 granted privileges, 195 had power of life, 54, 129...

Settlement: for children of second wife, 71, D mutual deeds in, 71, C given by fathers of bride and bride-groom, 71, C of pin-money, 132 on wife by “deed of gift,” 132 on wife b...

But if that man does not hearken to my words which I wrote on my stele, forgets my curses, fears not the malediction of God, sets aside the judgment which I judged, alters my wo...

(M850) A fragmentary report—it may have been a letter—gives a diary of a journey. If we could complete it, or find a few more like it, we should have a knowledge of geography su...

M820 A friendly letter from Esarhaddon to Urtaku M821 This friendship at first maintained by Ashurbânipal M822 The Elamites invade Babylonia M823 The punishment M824 Nabû-ushabs...