Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 42

An Assyrian Law Code 41 the full amount is taken away, 78 and he is obliged to give a quit- tance. 79 They mutilate his ear by boring. 80 44 If a woman is pledged 81 [to] 82 her husband who has been captured by an enemy, and she has neither father-in-law nor son, 83 for two years she must remain faithful to her husband. 84 (But) during these two years she may go and testify that she has not had any support and that she is a dependent(?) upon the palace. 85 She 78 1, e., the creditor as a fine forfeits the value of the transaction by order of the court. " i-na-at-tu i-ba-ak-ka-an. My translation rests on the interpretation of ibakkan as a denominative verb of bukanu, which is of frequent occurrence in sale documents dealing with slaves or real estate, to indicate that the trans- action is legally concluded. The phrase in business documents reads: 'he has handed over the bukanu'. (See the passages in Schorr, Altbabylonische Rechtsurkunden, s. v., p. 516.) The ideographic designation (Gil) Gan, shows that the bukanu was a utensil of some kind (cf . Ungnad, Zeits.fiir Assyriologie, 23, p. 88) used as a symbol and serving, therefore, as a formal recognition of the transaction. If the bukanu was (as is generally assumed) a 'staff', we would have an analogous practice in the lex salica to which B. Fehr, Hammurapi und das Salische Recht, p. 40, called attention. But whatever the symbol was, it served as a receipt, and our verb (the intensive form points to its being a denominative) is therefore to be taken in the sense of a legally completed transaction. Literally, therefore, 'It is proper (or obligatory) that he (sc. the offender) should hand over the bukanu'. 80 u-f)ap-pa, from ^ipu, 'destroy'. On the boring of the ear, see above § 39. 81 ta-ad-na-at, Permansive 3d person fern, from tadanu, which we encoun- tered above, § 29. The woman is betrothed but not actually married. 82 Read a-na. 83 She is deprived of support by her husband, and has no one to look after her. Her father-in-law, presumably, is dead and she has no offspring. 84 pa-ni ta-ad-da-gal as above, § 35, to indicate that she is not free to marry until after the expiration of two years. 85 The text is defective at the beginning of the line, so that there is a doubt as to the term to be supplied before sd ekal-lim, 'of the palace'. Three signs are clear, to wit: la-4-tu. The traces of the one preceding la point to kal. It may be, therefore, that she is designated as 'a bride of the palace', but this is unlikely for two reasons: (1) the meaning is obscure, and (2) we should expect kal-la-tu. Furthermore, there is room for another sign before kal. The most probable restoration seems to me to be tuk-kal-la^i-tu from takalu, 'to entrust', designating the woman as one whose charge falls to the state, in view of the fact that she is left without support in consequence of her betrothed's departure. It is assumed that her betrothed has been captured while in the service of the state (dan-na-at sarri, 'service of the king', line 82).