Middle Assyrian Laws

Historical source page 60

An Assyrian Law Code 59 pledge for debt, transactions regarding horses, oxen, and asses; theft, stolen property put on deposit, stolen property restored through a companion. (e) Fragment No. 7 (No. 143 of Schroeder's edition, PL 89) gives portions of four laws covering monetary transactions, indi- viduals held as pledges for debt, and guarantees. (/) Fragment No. 8 (No. 144 of Schroeder's edition, PI. 89)— small portion of one law. (g) Fragment No. 9 (No. 193 of Schroeder's edition, PI. 107 and 106)— bits of six laws, dealing with agriculture. [As this article goes through the press, the first volume of Bruno Meissner's very valuable new work, Babylonien und Assyrien (Heidelberg, Winter 1920), reaches me, in which, on pages 175-179, he summarizes some of the contents of the new code and discusses a number of the laws. Much to my satisfaction, I find that he confirms Professor Montgomery's supposition above set forth that in the term sarsen (§§14 and 19) we have the Assyrian term for 'eunuch' and that castration was, therefore, a form of punish- ment in Assyria as far back as the date of the Code. I also owe to Meissner the correct interpretation of the verb tadanu in the sense of being 'pledged' to marry in § 29 of Text No. 1 (which applies also to § 44) and I have embodied this view, as well as one or two other suggestions derived from incidental references to social conditions as set forth in Chapter XII of Meissner's work dealing with 'The family and daily life'.]