Basic Metadata

NaBuCCo ID
486
Museum No.
BM 31738+
CDLI P-Identifier
Place of issue
Babylon city
Type and Content
Litigation
Archive
Egibi/Nūr-Sîn
Dossier
None
Period
NB
Year BCE
540
Editio princeps
Nbn.

Content

Paraphrase
Litigation: Obligation to pronounce an oath.
The text states that A, B’s slave, will be available (uzzuzu) on Nisan (I), 1st, and swear an oath to the gods before Šamaš at its rising (niphu, i.e. at sunrise), (standing) within a magic circle (gišhuri) and in front of C. The dispute is about two promissory notes (u’iltu). The first one, for an amount of 1 mina and 15 shekels of silver, was established the 11th of Dûzu (IV) of Nabonidus’ 12th year: for this, A took as a pledge (maškanu ṣabātu) the arable land (zēru) located in front of the Giššu Gate. The second one, for 6 1/4 shekels of silver, was established the 10th of Abu (V) of the same year and must be paid by D: A will bring and show (kalāmu D) this document to C. In the oath, A will swear that he holds no lawsuit against C and that he is committing no fraud (niklu). Neither did he receive silver, barley, clothes (muṣibtu), nor anything else from his property (makkūru) – nor did he take anything himself, or turned to a superior (mamma elû) who did it for him. After D’s death, he did not change (šanû D) the cuneiform writing (tikip santakki) of these promissory notes – beyond the changes that were made already during D’s life. Then, he will swear that he did not appropriate (katāmu) D’s valuables (būšu) or property (makkūru) nor did he say “I have it; I know where it is”. He must state that he is not holding a deposit (tarkuttu), a promissory note (u’iltu), a special arrangement (riksu), a document (ṭuppu) nor anything else belonging to D – and that he never gave anything to anyone, nor does he know where it has been placed, nor did he give anything to anyone and hide (pasānu) it from (lapān) C. According to this oath, he does not claim anything that was not written in the promissory note that he showed (kalāmu D) to C. After having sworn this, he will release (muššuru) C’s […]. If he does not swear, A will return the previous promissory note dated to Dûzu (IV) and he will hand it over to C (târu D-nadānu). One final clause states that A will swear only if the 20th day is a free (petû, lit. ‘open’) day: if not, then he will swear the following month (Ayyār (II), 20th). Names of 3 witnesses and the scribe.
 
A = Nabû-uterri, slave of B; B = Iddināya (=Itti-Marduk-balāṭu/Nabû-ahhē-iddin//Egibi); C = Nādinu; D = Nabû-ēreš
Transliteration
None
Babylonian Date (year-month-day):
Nbn. yy-I-dd

further information

Imported (Person, Date)
Kathleen Abraham 15/04/2017
Legacy NaBuCCo ID
7619