Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 53

52 -Morris Jastrow, Jr. with an accident (?)] 85 or flees, his share falls to the king, 86 [accord- ing to] his pleasure. 87 4 (This law — likewise dealing with an undivided estates-is too badly preserved to permit of a translation.) 5 (Of this law, continuing the same general subject, only the ends of eight lines are preserved.) 6 88 (The beginning of this law, revealing in a most interesting manner the procedure in ancient Assyria for disposing of an estate, is broken off. When the text becomes intelligible, it reads as follows:) for silver 89 [a man wishes to acquire], he must agree [in regard to the field and] house, not [to acquire it] 90 for silver, for one month. 91 The [surrogate] 92 within the city of Asshur shall cause proclamation 93 to be made three times. Three times, he shall cause the field and house which is to be acquired to be proclaimed in the city, to wit 94 : the field and house which 85 Text defective. Some phrase, indicating that one of the brothers died is demanded by the context, as a comparison with the above text No. 1, § 42 (col. 6. 22), 'he either dies or flees', shows. 88 1, e., as we would say, 'to the state'. 87 Read [ki-i] li-ib-bi-i-&u, i.e., the king may, if he chooses, confiscate the share. It reverts to the state. 88 More than one law may be missing between the end of Col. 2 and the beginning of the third column. 88 A missing line described the prospective purchaser. 80 Read la-a [u-lek-ki[-u-ni, favored by the traces. " I.e., there shall be a delay of one month. 82 The traces-point to [lu'll (like lines 28, 31, 36, 40, etc.), an official of some kind — perhaps to be read kinattu, if the restoration of the determinative Lit before ll in Cuneiform Texts XIX, PI. 27 (K 2061, obv. 24) is correct. See Meissner, Seltene Assyr. Ideogramme No. 4385. The restoration finds support from II Rawlinson, PI. 48. 3a, where Ner-Gal with the force of 'lord' is likewise equated with kinattu. On the other hand, the official designated by ll might also be read mabru, 'first officer' (Meissner ib. No. 4386). In any case the ideographic designation having the value of 'to be high', points to an official of high standing, a surrogate charged with announcing and super- intending the disposal of estates. n u-sa-a$~sa= from Sasu, 'to call out'. 84 ma-a, introducing the formal wording of the official proclamation to be made three times during the month, as a notice to all concerned.