YBC 04005

Adoption of one slave by another (of the same master).

The exact nature and context of this transaction is not entirely clear.

A voluntarily (ina hūd libbi) gives ⅔* in (ina) (the ownership over) his Egyptian slave (qallu) B to his other slave, C. The latter** has to pay (nadānu) 5 shekels of silver for the ⅔ in B. The transaction is formulated, not as a sale, but as an adoption, i.e. “A voluntariy gives (nadānu) ⅔ in B to C for adoption as a son (ana mārūti).” The slave C had been dedicated (by his master A) to the temple: he was “as a temple-serf (širku) of the Lady-of-Uruk.” Therefore, when C dies, B will belong to the temple-serf-status of the Lady-of-Uruk (as well).

The tablet concludes with a curse against any transgressor: May Bēl, Nabû, the Lady-of-Uruk, and Nanāya decree the destruction of whoever alters this agreement, whether a governor or a scribe.

Names of 3 witnesses and the scribe.

*Wr. 2-ta šuII.meš = 2 qātāte. For the possibility to read KUŠ rather than ŠU, see Ragen 2006, 355.

**Differently, Ragen 2006, 355 who takes B in line 14 as the subject of the verb “to pay” instead of the second part in a genitive construction with the 2 qātāte of the preceding line 13: “⅔ in B”.

A= Ištar-šumu-līšir//Ekur-zākir; B= Nabû-ina-kāru-lūmur, an Egyptian slave of A; C= Ištar-abu-uṣur, slave of A and a temple-serf (širku)