Library of Ancient Inscriptions
Babylonian And Assyrian
Laws, Contracts and Letters
By
C. H. W. Johns, M.A.
Lecturer in Queens’ College, Cambridge, and
King’s College, London
New York
Charles Scribner’s Sons
1904
CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
List Of Abbreviations
Sources And Bibliography
Laws And Contracts
I. The Earliest Babylonian Laws
II. The Code Of Ḥammurabi
III. Later Babylonian Law
IV. The Social Organization Of The Ancient Babylonian State
V. Judges, Law-Courts, And Legal Processes
VI. Legal Decisions
VII. Public Rights
VIII. Criminal Law
IX. The Family Organization
X. Courtship And Marriage
XI. Divorce And Desertion
XII. Rights Of Widows
XIII. Obligations And Rights Of Children
XIV. The Education And Early Life Of Children
XV. Adoption
XVI. Rights Of Inheritance
XVII. Slavery
XVIII. Land Tenure In Babylonia
XIX. The Army, _Corvée_, And Other Claims For Personal Service
XX. The Functions And Organization Of The Temple
XXI. Donations And Bequests
XXII. Sales
XXIII. Loans And Deposits
XXIV. Pledges And Guarantees
XXV. Wages Of Hired Laborers
XXVI. Lease Of Property
XXVII. The Laws Of Trade
XXVIII. Partnership And Power Of Attorney
XXIX. Accounts And Business Documents
Babylonian And Assyrian Letters
I. Letters And Letter-Writing Among The Babylonians And Assyrians
II. The Letters Of Ḥammurabi
III. The Letters Of Samsu-Iluna And His Immediate Successors
IV. Private Letters Of The First Dynasty Of Babylon
V. Sennacherib’s Letters To His Father, Sargon
VI. Letters From The Last Year Of Shamash-Shum-Ukîn
VII. Letters Regarding Affairs In Southern Babylonia
Letters About Elam And Southern Babylonia
IX. Miscellaneous Assyrian Letters
X. Letters Of The Second Babylonian Empire
Appendix
I. The Prologue And Epilogue To The Code Of Ḥammurabi
II. Chronology
III. Weights And Measures
IV. Bibliography Of The Later Periods
Index
Footnotes
DEDICATION
To
My Mother
In Memory Of Loving Help
PREFACE
The social institutions, manners, and customs of an ancient people must
always be of deep interest for all those to whom nothing is indifferent
that is human. But even for modern thinkers, engrossed in the practical
problems of our advanced civilization, the records of antiquity have a
direct value. We are better able to deal with the complicated questions of
the day if we are acquainted with the simpler issues of the past. We may
not set them aside as too remote to have any influence upon us. Not long
ago men looked to Greece and Rome for political models. We can hardly
estimate the influence which that following of antiquity has had upon our
own social life.
But there is a deeper influence even than Greek politics and Roman law,
still powerfully at work among us, which we owe to a more remote past. We
should probably resent the idea that we were not dominated by Christian
principles. So far as they are distinct from Greek and Roman ideals, most
of them have their roots in Jewish thought. When a careful investigation
is made, it will probably be found that the most distinctive Christian
principles in our times are those which were taken over from Jewish life,
since the Old Testament still more widely appeals to us than the New. But
those Jewish ideas regarding society have been inherited in turn from the
far more ancient Babylonian civilization. It is startling to find how much
that we have thought distinctively our own has really come down to us from
that great people who ruled the land of the two streams. We need not be
ashamed of anything we can trace back so far. It is from no savage
ancestors that it descends to us. It bears the “hall mark,” not only of
extreme antiquity but of sterling worth.
The people, who were so highly educated, so deeply religious, so humane
and intelligent, who developed such just laws, and such permanent
institutions, are not unprofitable acquaintances. A right-thinking citizen
of a modern city would probably feel more at home in ancient Babylon than
in mediæval Europe. When we have won our way through the difficulties of
the language and the writing to the real meaning of their purpose and come
into touch with the men who wrote and spoke, we greet brothers. Rarely in
the history of antiquity can we find so much of which we heartily approve,
so little to condemn. The primitive virtues, which we flatter ourselves
that we have retained, are far more in evidence than those primitive vices
which we know are not extinct among us. The average Babylonian strikes us
as a just, good man, no wild savage, but a law-abiding citizen, a faithful
husband, good father, kind son, firm friend, industrious trader, or
careful man of business. We know from other sources that he was no
contemptible warrior, no mean architect or engineer. He might be an
excellent artist, modelling in clay, carving rocks, and painting walls.
His engraving of seals was superb. His literary work was of high order.
His scientific attainments were considerable.
When we find so much to approve we may naturally ask the reason. Some may
say it is because right was always right everywhere. Others will try to
trace our inheritance of thought. At any rate, we may accord our praise to
those who seized so early in the history of the race upon views which have
proved to be of the greatest and most permanent value. Perhaps nowhere
else than in the archives of the old Assyrian and Babylonian temples could
we find such an instructive exhibition of the development of the art of
expressing facts and ideas in written language. The historical
inscriptions, indeed, exhibit a variety of incidents, but have a painful
monotony of subject and a conventional grandeur of style. In the contracts
we find men struggling for exactness of statement and clearness of
diction. In the letters we have untrammelled directness of address,
without regard to models of expression. In the one case we have a
scrupulous following of precedent, in the other freedom from rule or
custom. One result is that while we are nearly always sure what the
contract said and intended, we often are completely unable to see why the
given phrases were used for their particular purpose. Every phrase is
technical and legal, to a degree that often defies translation. On the
other hand, the letters are often as colloquial in style as the contracts
are formal. Hence they swarm with words and phrases for which no parallel
can be found. Unless the purpose of the letter is otherwise clear, these
words and phrases may be quite unintelligible. Any side issue may be
introduced, or even a totally irrelevant topic. While the point of these
disconnected sentences may have been perfectly clear to the recipient of
the message, we cannot possibly understand them, unless we have an
intimate acquaintance with the private life and personal relations of the
two correspondents.
Hence, quite apart from the difficulties of copying such ancient
inscriptions, often defaced, originally ill-written, and complicated by
the personal tastes of individual scribes for odd spellings, rare words,
or stock phrases; besides the difficulties of a grammar and vocabulary
only partly made out; the very nature of both contracts and letters
implies special obscurities. But the peculiarities of these obscurities
are such as to excite curiosity and stimulate research.
The wholesome character of the subject-matter, the absence of all
possibility of a revision in party interests, the probable straightforward
honesty of the purpose, act like a tonic to the ordinary student of
history. Nowhere can he find more reliable material for his purpose, if
only he can understand it. The history he may reconstruct will be that of
real men, whose character and circumstances have not yet been
misrepresented. He will find the human nature singularly like what he may
observe about him, once he has seen through superficial manners and
customs.
One important point cannot be too strongly insisted upon. Numerous as our
documents are, they do not form a continuous series. One collection is
chiefly composed of temple archives, another comes from a family
deed-chest, where only such documents were preserved as were of value to
the persons who collected them. At one period we may have a great number
of documents relating to one sort of transaction. In the next period we
may have hardly any reference to similar transactions, but very complete
evidence regarding other matters. We may assume that, in such a
conservative country as Assyria or Babylonia, things went on for ages in
much the same way. Conclusions rightly drawn for early times are probably
true for the later periods also. As far as we can test this assumption, it
holds good. We may even assume that the converse is true, but that is more
doubtful.
Thus, we find that the practice of taking a pledge as security for debt is
fully established for later times and we may therefore hesitate to deny
its existence in early periods, although we have no direct evidence on the
point. This absence of evidence may be due to the nature of the early
collections. It may be an accident. It may also be due to the fact that
the tablet acknowledging a loan was usually broken up on the return of the
sum. But it might also be the fact that pledges were not usual in early
times. Such was, indeed, formerly the conclusion drawn from the absence of
documents referring to pledges; but Dr. B. Meissner pointed out that the
legal phrase-books bore witness to the existence of the custom. The
discovery of the Code of Ḥammurabi has shown that the practice not only
existed, but was regulated by statute in his time. Hence the argument from
silence is once more shown to be fallacious.
On the other hand, it is well to avoid a dogmatic statement of the
existence of a practice before the date at which we have direct evidence
of it: thus, it has been stated that the tithe was paid in Babylonia “from
time immemorial.” The only direct evidence comes from the time of
Nebuchadrezzar II. and later. In view of such an early antiquity as that,
the use of the phrase “time immemorial” was perhaps once justified. But we
are now equipped with documentary evidence concerning customs two or three
thousand years earlier. Until we can discover some direct evidence there
of tithe, we must content ourselves with saying that it was regularly paid
under the Second Empire of Babylonia. We may be firmly convinced that a
custom so widespread did not spring into being all at once. But the tithe
may have been a composition for earlier dues, and as such may have been
introduced from Chaldea by Nabopolassar. It may therefore not have been of
native Babylonian growth.
In this and many similar cases it is well not to go beyond the evidence.
To some extent the plan of this work must necessarily be different from
that of the rest of the series. When a historical inscription is once well
translated its chief bearings can be made out and it is its own
interpreter to a large extent. But the object in a contract is to legally
bind certain parties to a course of action, and there its translation
ends. We do not find much interest now in the obligations of these
parties, save in so far as they illustrate the progress of civilization.
It is the conclusion we are to draw which gives the interest. When we have
reached that, a thousand more contracts of the same type add nothing to
that point. We may use them to make a study of proper names, or to correct
our notions of chronology by their dates, or to draw up genealogies, or
even to elaborate statistics of occurrences of particular forms of words,
of prices, and the like; or try to reconstruct the topography of a town;
but from the point of view of a student of law and history, a thousand are
little better than one.
As a rule, however, we rarely find a fresh example of an old type without
some small deviation, which is worth recording. But to translate it, for
the sake of that small difference, would fill a book with examples, so
similar as to be wearisome in their monotony. The only way then is to
select some bold example, translate it as a fair average specimen, and
then collect in an introduction and notes the most interesting additional
items of information to be gathered from others of the type. Hence most of
the types here selected have involved the reading and study of scores of
texts, though but one is given in translation. Other points of great
interest arise, as for example, the obligations to public service, which
are not the direct subject of any one text. Hence, no single example can
be selected for translation. The data of many texts must be collected, and
only a sentence here and there can be utilized for translation. Hence,
while other volumes of the series are properly translations, with brief
introductions and a few notes, this must consist of copious introductions
and many notes with a few translations.
Of course, all technical, philological and historical discussions must be
avoided. Those who wish to find further examples, illustrating the points
given, will be referred to the sources and commentaries which give almost
endless repetitions of the same type. As a rule, a fresh example, which
has not been translated before, will be used here. In some cases, however,
where the most typical examples have already been used, they are
reproduced.
The more important and new details are substantiated by references in
foot-notes. When several references could be given, it has been the rule
to give only one. For fuller information the literature of the subject may
be consulted. But where the Assyrian or Babylonian words are given, the
reader will consult the lexicons first. There are many admirable
glossaries attached to the editions of texts, which for students are a
valuable supplement to the lexicons. All philological discussions are, of
course, excluded. As a rule, doubtful interpretations will be ignored or
at least queried. It is, on the other hand, impossible to give detailed
proofs of what is certain to the writer, when it disagrees with recognized
authorities. Nor is it desirable to puzzle the reader with alternative
views, when there is no opportunity for him to judge of their merits.
Every attempt will be made to discard non-essentials. Thus, in order to
insure that there should be no mistake as to the persons intended, the
ancient scribe usually gave not only the name, but the father’s name, and
often added the name of his tribe, or his occupation. For example,
“Ardi-Ishtar, son of Ashur-bânî, the son of Gaḥal,” might be the scribe’s
careful specification of one party to some transaction. But unless some
other party is a relation and the transaction explicitly concerns what
could take place between relations, the whole line gives us no information
of value for illustrating the subject for which it is quoted. Indeed, in
most cases, the name itself is of no interest. It is true that the names
have a value of their own; but that is aside from the purpose of this
book. The examples are selected to illustrate legal points, not for the
sake of the names. And indeed, the few interesting names so given would be
insufficient to serve any useful purpose; they might even be misused, for
no permanent results can be obtained by picking up here and there a name,
with some fanciful likeness to Abraham, or Jacob, unless a complete list
of similar names be available to check and control the readings.
Hence, as a rule, the name of a party is condensed into a single letter,
chosen usually in order to suggest the part played by the person in the
transaction. Thus S stands for the seller, B for the buyer, J for the
judge, C for the creditor, L for the lender, D for the debtor or borrower,
and so on. These abbreviations may be used without any detriment to the
argument, as the context usually defines the relation and there is no need
to remember what they mean. This seems preferable, for the most part, to
the Continental system of using A-A-G for the above name.
As a further abbreviation, all lists of witnesses are excluded. The date
is usually suppressed, for, unless we are following a series of
transactions between the same parties, nothing more than the epoch is of
importance. As the material is arranged by epochs, there can be no
question in this regard. If any evolution of process or any reference to
former transactions is involved, so that the date is important, it is
given.
A collection of legal documents may be studied in a variety of ways.
Perhaps the least productive plan is to ransack them for illustrations of
a theory, or a particular point. When the theory is already well known, as
in the case of Roman or mediæval law, such a procedure is justifiable, but
when the theory has to be made out, it is wellnigh inexcusable. Some
valuable monographs have followed this method, but they can hardly expect
to give permanent results. For comparative purposes our material is so
new, and so little worked, that it is sheer waste of time to seek for
parallels elsewhere until everything is clearly made out to which
parallels are to be sought. The whole bulk of material must be read
through and classified. Until this is done, some important point may
easily be overlooked.
The first attempts at classification will be provisional. A certain amount
of overlapping is sure to occur. For example, slave sales obviously form a
provisional group. But slaves were sold along with lands or houses. Shall
these sales be taken into the group? The sales of lands may be another
group. To which group shall we assign the sale of a piece of land and the
slaves attached to it? To answer that question we may examine the sales of
slaves and the sales of lands to see if either group has peculiarities,
the recurrence of which in a sale of land and slaves might decide. But we
soon find that a slave was sold exactly like a piece of land or any
chattel. The only exception is that certain guarantees are expected with
the slave, which differ from those demanded with a piece of land. On the
whole, then, the chief group will be “sales,” with subdivisions according
to the class of property used. Hence we cannot assume that there was
already present to legal consciousness a difference between real and
personal property, or in any other sense that a slave was a person. He was
a chattel.
The classification which will be adopted is not one that will suit modern
legal ideas. It depends on the form of document alone. If two documents
have the same type of formula, they will be grouped together. A future
revision will, no doubt, assign to many of these a place in modern
schemes. But it is very easy to be premature in assigning an ancient
document to modern categories.
The groups will be subdivided according to subject-matter. The order of
the groups will be determined by the greater or less complexity of the
documents. It is best to take those first which can be easily made out.
The experience gained in discussing them will be of great service in
dealing with more complicated cases. The reader must not, however, suppose
that no obscurities will remain. Subsequent investigation will lead to
redistribution. Each such revision will, however, bring us nearer to sound
results.
One of the most interesting and instructive methods of dealing with a
large collection of documents is to group together the transactions,
distributed over a number of years, of one man, or of a single family.
This method has often been adopted and makes most fascinating reading.
Thus, M. V. Revillout, in the appendix to M. E. Revillout’s lectures
entitled _Les obligations en droit egyptien_, under the title of _Une
famille des commerçants_, discussed the interrelations of a large number
of tablets published by Strassmaier. These had a special connection, being
found, and practically kept, together. They are concerned chiefly with the
business transactions of three persons and their descendants. The three
men do not seem to have been related, but to have become partners. The
first transaction in which they are concerned is an equitable division of
property which they had held in common. They and their descendants lived
side by side in Larsa and gradually extended their possessions on every
side. They were neighbors to two wealthy landowners from whom and from
whose descendants they gradually acquired lands and houses. Especially did
two brothers, sons of one of the original three, buy up, piece by piece,
almost all the property of these two neighboring families. Further, in
acquiring a piece of land, they seem to have come into possession of the
deeds of sale, or leases, of that plot, which had been executed by
previous owners. Thus, we can, in some cases, follow the history of a plot
of land during several reigns.
Such a collection of documents probably did not come from the public
archives, but from the muniment-chest of a private family, or of a firm of
traders. That duplicates of some of these tablets should have been found
in other collections, points either to the collections having been
purchased from native dealers, who put together tablets from all sources,
or to the duplicates having been deposited in public archives, as a kind
of registration of title.
In Assyrian times the transactions of the great Rîmâni-Adadi, the chief
charioteer and agent of Ashurbânipal, who for some thirteen years appears
almost yearly, as buyer or seller, lender or borrower, on some forty
tablets, may serve as a further example,(1) or we may note how Baḥiânu
appears, chiefly as a corn lender, year after year, for thirty-three
years, on some twenty-four tablets.(2)
For the Second Empire of Babylonia, Professor J. Kohler and Dr. F. E.
Peiser have given some fine examples of this method. Thus, for the
bankruptcy of Nabû-aplu-iddin,(3) they show that the creditors distrained
upon the bankrupt’s property and found a buyer for most of it in a great
Neriglissar, afterwards King of Babylon. The first creditor was paid in
full, another received about half of the amount due to him, a third about
the same, while a fourth obtained less than a quarter of what was owed
him. They also follow out the fortunes of the great banking firm of
Egibi(4) for fully a century. The sketch, of course, is not complete, and
can only be made so by a prolonged search through thousands of documents
in different museums; but it is intensely interesting and written with
wonderful insight and legal knowledge. Another example is the family, or
guild, of the priests of Gula.(5) This is less fully made out but most
valuable, as far as it goes. In both cases a genealogy is given extending
over many generations.
Later still, the Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania,
in the ninth volume of Cuneiform Texts, gives a collection of the business
documents of one firm, “Murashu Sons, of Nippur,” in the reign of
Artaxerxes I. Here we have to do with a family deed-chest, a collection of
documents found together and fortunately kept together.
But this method, attractive though it is, cannot be followed here. The
reader is best led on from the known to the unknown. Those things must be
taken first which must be understood in order to appreciate what is placed
later. We consider first the law and the law-courts. The reader can thus
follow the references to procedure which occur in the other sections. The
rights of the State, the family, and the private individual come next.
Then we learn of the classes of property and the various ways of disposing
of it. After that is taken up a variety of disconnected topics, whose
order is mainly indifferent. Some overlapping of divisions is sure to
occur in any order. This system has been found, after many permutations,
to present the least inconvenience.
While it is hoped that this volume will give a fairly complete account of
what is really known and also point out some things that are reasonably
conjectured to be true, it is fully recognized that much remains to be
done. Indeed, it may serve by its omissions to redirect attention to
openings for future fruitful work.
LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS
A. B. R. _Aus dem babylonischen Rechtsleben._ Professor J. Kohler and Dr.
F. E. Peiser. Leipzig, 1890-.
A. D. B. _Assyrian Doomsday Book._ Vol. XVII of _Assyriologische
Bibliothek_. Leipzig, 1901.
A. D. D. _Assyrian Deeds and Documents._ In three vols. Cambridge, 1898-.
A. J. S. L. _American Journal of Semitic Languages and Literatures._
Chicago.
A. O. F. _Altorientalische Forschungen._ Dr. H. Winckler. Leipzig, 1893-.
B. A. L. _Babylonian and Assyrian Life._ Professor A. H. Sayce. New York,
1901. (Semitic Series.)
B. A. S. _Beiträge zur Assyriologie._ Professors Delitzsch and Haupt.
Leipzig, 1890-.
B. E. P. _The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania._
Series A. Cuneiform Texts. 1898-.
B. V. _Babylonische Verträge._ Dr. F. E. Peiser. Berlin, 1890.
C. T. _Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in the British
Museum._ London, 1896-.
D. E. P. _Délégation en Perse, Memoires._ Pub. by French Ministry of
Instruction. Professor V. Scheil. 1900-.
E. B. H. _Early Babylonian History._ Dr. H. Radau. New York, 1900.
H. A. B. L. _Assyrian and Babylonian Letters._ Professor R. F. Harper.
Chicago, 1892-.
H. W. B. _Assyrisches Handwörterbuch._ Professor Delitzsch. Leipzig, 1894.
I R., II R., III R., IV R., V R. _The Cuneiform Inscriptions of Western
Asia._ H. C. Rawlinson. London, 1861, 1866, 1870, 1880-4.
K. A. S. _Keilinschriftliche Aktenstücke._ Dr. F. E. Peiser. Berlin, 1889.
K. B. _Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek._ Professor Eb. Schrader. Berlin,
1889-.
K. L. Ḥ. _The Letters and Inscriptions of Ḥammurabi._ Three vols. L. W.
King, M.A. London, 1898-.
K. P. See A. B. R.
L. H. See K. L. Ḥ.
H. A. P. _Beiträge zum altbabylonischen Privatrecht._ Dr. Br. Meissner.
Leipzig, 1893.
P. S. B. A. _Proceedings of the Society of Biblical Archæology._ London,
1872-.
_Rev. Ass._ _Revue d’Assyriologie._ Professors J. Oppert and E. Ledrain.
Paris, 1884-.
Z. A. _Zeitschrift für Assyriologie._ Professor C. Bezold. Leipzig, 1886-.
Z. K. F. _Zeitschrift für Keilschriftforschung._ Professor C. Bezold.
Leipzig, 1884-.
_Camb._, _Cyr._, _Dar._, _Ev. Mer._, _Nbd._, _Nbk._, _Nerig._, denote the
volumes of _Babylonische Texte_; _Inschriften von Cambyses_, _Cyrus_,
_Darius_, _Evil Merodach_, _Nabonidus_, _Nebuchodonosor_, _Neriglissar_,
pub. by Pater J. N. Strassmaier. Leipzig, 1887-.
H denotes the text published in H. A. B. L.
K denotes a text from Kouyunjik, now in the British Museum.
S denotes a text at Constantinople, from Sippara.
V. A. Th. denotes a text in the Berlin Museum.
B, B1, B2 denote texts of the collections “from Warka,” Bu. 88-5-12, and
Bu. 91-5-9.
SOURCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY
(M1) The chief sources from which is derived our knowledge of Babylonian
and Assyrian law are the contemporary inscriptions of the people
themselves. These are not supplemented to any appreciable extent by the
traditions of classical authors. So far as they make any references to the
subject, their opinions have to be revised by the immeasurably greater
knowledge that we now possess, and seem to be mostly based upon
“travellers’ tales” and misapprehensions.
These inscriptions are now preserved in great numbers in European and
American museums, and have only been partly published. The bibliography is
very extensive. For the earlier attempts to read and explain these
documents the reader may refer to Professor C. Bezold’s _Kurzgefässter
Überblick über die babylonisch-assyrische Litteratur_,(6) which gives a
fairly complete account up to 1887. Of course, many books and memoirs
there mentioned have now only a historical interest for the story of
decipherment and explanation. These, however, may be studied with the
greatest profit after having first become acquainted with the more recent
works.
(M2) The division which is adopted in this work, “law, contracts, and
letters,” is only conventional. The three groups have much that is common
and mutually supplement one another. Previous publications have often
treated them more or less together, both as inscriptions and as minor
sources of history. Hence it is not possible to draw up separate lists of
books treating each division of the subject. Only those books or articles
will be referred to which are most valuable for the student. Many of them
give excellent bibliographies of their special subject.
(M3) The contemporary sources include actual codes of law, or fragments of
them, legal phrase-books, and legal instruments of all sorts. From the
last-mentioned source almost all that is known of ancient Babylonian law
has been derived. The historical and religious inscriptions contribute
very little. The consequence is that, except from the recently discovered
Code of Ḥammurabi scarcely anything is known of the law in respect to
crimes. Contracts and binding agreements are found in great profusion; but
there is nothing to show how theft or murder was treated.
Marriage-contracts tell us how adultery was punished. Agreements or legal
decisions show how inheritance was assigned. Consequently our treatment of
law and contracts must regard them as inseparable, except that we may
place first the fragments of actual codes which exist.
(M4) The letters are much more distinct. Each is a separate study, except
in so far as it can be grouped with others of the same period in attempts
to disentangle the historical events to which they refer. The deductions
as to life and manners are no less valuable than those made from legal
documents. In both wording and subject-matter they often illustrate legal
affairs and even directly treat of them.
(M5) A first duty will be carefully to distinguish epochs. Great social
and political changes must have left some mark upon the institutions we
are to study. As far as possible, the material has been arranged for each
subject chronologically.
(M6) The longest and by far the most important ancient code hitherto
discovered is that of Ḥammurabi (_circa_ 2250 B.C.). The source for this
is a block of black diorite about 2.25 metres high, tapering from 1.90 to
1.65 metres in circumference. It was found by De Morgan at Susa, the
ancient Persepolis, in December, 1901, and January, 1902, in fragments,
which were easily rejoined. The text was published by the French Ministry
of Instruction from “squeezes” by the process of photogravure, in the
fourth volume of the _Mémoires de la Délégation en Perse_. It was there
admirably transcribed and translated by Professor V. Scheil. In all, the
monument now preserves forty-four columns with some three thousand six
hundred lines. There were five columns more, which were once intentionally
erased and the stone repolished, probably by the order of some monarch of
Susa, who meant to put his own name and titles there. There have been
found other monuments in the French explorations at Susa, where the
Elamite monarch has erased the inscription of a Babylonian king and
inserted his own. This method of blotting out the name of a king was a
favorite device in the ancient East and is frequently protested against
and cursed in the inscription set up in Babylonia. This particular
inscription did not fail to call down similar imprecations, which perhaps
the Elamite could not read. But he stayed his hand, and we do not even
know his name, for he wrote nothing on the vacant space.
It seems probable that the stone, or at any rate its original, if it be a
copy, was set up at Sippara; for the text speaks of _Êbarra šuati_, “this
Ebarra,” which was the temple of Shamash at Sippara. At the head of the
obverse is a very interesting picture of Ḥammurabi receiving his laws from
the seated sun-god Shamash. Some seven hundred lines are devoted to the
king’s titles and glory; to enumerating the gods he reverenced, and the
cities over which he ruled; to invoking blessings on those who preserved
his monument and respected his inscription, with the usual curses on those
who did the opposite.(7) These belong to the region of history and
religion and do not concern us here. We may note, however, that the king
expected that anyone injured or oppressed would come to his monument and
be able there to read for himself what were the rights of his case.
(M7) The whole of this inscription is not entirely new matter. The scribes
of Ashurbânipal somewhere found a copy, or copies, of this inscription and
made it into a series of tablets. Probably their originals were Babylonian
tablets, for we know that in Babylonia the Code had been made into a
series which bore the name of _Nînu ilu ṣîrum_, from the opening words of
the stele. But, judging from the colophon of the Assyrian series, the
scribes knew that the inscription came from a stele bearing the “image” of
Ḥammurabi. A number of fragments belonging to such copies by later scribes
were already published, by Dr. B. Meissner(8) and Dr. F. E. Peiser.(9)
These were further commented upon by Professor Fr. Delitzsch,(10) who
actually gave them the name “Code Hammurabi.” Some of these fragments
enable us to restore one or two sections of the lost five columns.
These fragments are now easily set in order and will doubtless lead to the
discovery of many others, the meaning of which has not yet been
recognized. They exhibit some variants of interest, showing that they were
not made directly from this particular monument. Even at Susa another
fragment was found of a duplicate stele. Hence we may hope to recover the
whole text before long.
(M8) The publication of the Code naturally excited great interest among
scholars. It appeared in October, 1902, and, during the next month, Dr. H.
Winckler issued a German translation of the Code under the title, _Die
Gesetze Hammurabis Königs von Babylon um 2250 v. Chr. Das Älteste
Gesetzbuch der Welt_, being _Heft 4_ of the fourth _Jahrgang_ of _Der alte
Orient_. This marked an advance in some points on Scheil’s rendering, but
is not entirely satisfactory. The present writer read a paper in October,
1902, before the Cambridge Theological Society, an abridged report of
which appeared in the January _Journal_. He further published a baldly
literal translation in February, 1903, entitled, _The Oldest Code of Laws
in the World_.(11) In the _Journal des Savants_ for October and November,
1902, M. Dareste gave a luminous account of the subject-matter of the
Code, especially valuable for its comparisons with the other most ancient
law-codes. This of course was based on Scheil’s renderings. In the
_Orientalistische Litteratur-Zeitung_ for January, 1903, Dr. H. Winckler,
reviewing the fourth volume of the _Mémoires_, gave a useful account of
the Code comparing it with some of the previously published fragments.
(M9) The comparison with the Mosaic Code was sure to attract notice,
especially as Professor F. Delitzsch had called the attention of the
public to it, in his lecture entitled _Babel und Bibel_, even before more
of the Code was known than the fragments from Nineveh. Dr. J. Jeremias has
published a small book called _Moses und Hammurabi_, in which he deals
with the relations pretty thoroughly. Professor C. F. Kent has also
examined them in his article entitled _The Recently Discovered Civil Code
of Hammurabi_, in _The Biblical World_ for March, 1903. Some remarks on
the subject are to be found in the _New York Independent_, December 11,
18, 1902, and January 8, 15, 22, 1903, accompanying a translation. All the
above follow Winckler’s renderings.
The translation here given makes use of the above works, but must be
regarded as independent. It is impracticable to detail and justify the
changes made. The renderings can hardly be regarded as final, where actual
contracts do not occur to illustrate the Code; but there is very little
doubt that we know the tenor of these laws with substantial accuracy.
Professor V. Scheil divided the text of the Code into sections according
to subject-matter. But there are no marks of a division on the monument
and Scheil’s division is not adhered to in this work. For convenience of
reference, however, his original section-numbers are given in connection
with each law or sub-section of a law.
(M10) Among the treasures preserved in the library of Ashurbânipal and in
the archives of the Babylonian temples were a number of tablets and
fragments of tablets which recorded the efforts made by Semitic scribes to
render Sumerian words and phrases into Semitic. A large number of these
are concerned with legal subjects. A fairly complete list of those now in
the Kouyunjik Collections of the British Museum will be found in the fifth
volume of Dr. Bezold’s catalogue, page 2032. The greater part of them have
been published either in the British Museum _Inscriptions of Western
Asia_, in Dr. P. Haupt’s _Keilschrifttexten_, Vol. I. of the
_Assyriologische Bibliothek_, or in Dr. F. Hommel’s _Sumerische
Lesestücke_. In the latter will be found references to other publications.
Dr. B. Meissner further published a number of later Babylonian editions of
the same or allied series.(12)
(M11) The plan of the series to which most of these tablets belong is well
seen in Dr. Delitzsch’s _Assyrische Lesestücke_, fourth edition, pp.
112-14. The name by which the series is usually known, to which most of
these tablets belong, is the Semitic rendering of the first Sumerian
phrase given there, _ana ittišu_, “to his side.” The sections into which
the series is divided each deal with some simple idea and its expression
in Sumerian. But the principle of arrangement is not very clear. We may
take one section for example. “With him, with them, with me, with us, with
thee, with you,” are given in two columns, the first being the Sumerian
for these phrases, the second the Semitic rendering. Owing to the form of
treatment some of these texts have been called “paradigms.”
(M12) But the scribes also gave some fairly long and connected prose
extracts in Sumerian with their Semitic renderings. What these were
extracted from is still a question. Some of the clauses are known to have
been employed in the contracts. But some of these even may well have been
extracts from a code of laws. The name of “Sumerian Family Laws” has been
given to certain sections.(13) Others seem to have been extracted from a
Sumerian work on agriculture, with which Hesiod’s _Works and Days_ has
been compared. But at present we are not in possession of the complete
works from which these extracts are taken.
Such as they are, they have a value beyond that of enabling us to read
Sumerian documents. They often afford evidence of customs and information
which we get nowhere else.(14) The information given by them will be
utilized in the subsequent portions of this work. Their translation here
would serve no purpose, since they are very disconnected, but an example
may be of interest. One section reads, “He fastens the buckets, suspends
the pole, and draws up the water.” This is a vivid picture of the working
of a watering-machine, from which we learn its nature as we could not from
its name only.(15)
(M13) Legal documents constitute by far the larger portion of the
inscriptions which have come down to us from every period of Babylonian
and Assyrian history. In the library of Ashurbânipal alone they are
exceeded by the letters and even more by the works dealing with astrology
and omens. In some periods, however, we have only a few inscriptions from
monuments, or bricks.
(M14) To some extent the term “contracts,” which has commonly been applied
to them, is misleading. The use of the term certainly was due to a
fundamental misunderstanding, they being once considered as contracts to
furnish goods. They were even thought to be promises to pay, which passed
from hand to hand, like our checks, and so formed a species of “clay
money.” These views were both partially true, but do not cover the whole
ground.
They were binding legal agreements, sealed and witnessed. They were
binding only on the parties named in them. They were drawn up by
professional scribes who wrote the whole of the document, even the names
of the witnesses. Hence it is inaccurate to speak of them as “signed” by
anyone but the scribe, who often added his name at the end of the list of
witnesses. The parties and witnesses did impress their own seals at one
period, but later one seal, or two at most, served for all. It is not
clear whose seal was then used. But the document usually declares it to be
the seal of the party resigning possession.
(M15) As to external form, most of those which may be called “deeds”
consist of small pillow-shaped, or rectangular, cakes of clay. In many
cases these were enclosed in an envelope, also of clay, powdered clay
being inserted to prevent the envelope adhering. Both the inner and outer
parts were generally baked hard; but there are many examples where the
clay was only dried in the sun. The envelope was inscribed with a
duplicate of the text. Often the envelope is more liberally sealed than
the inner tablet. This sealing, done with a cylinder-seal, running on an
axle, was repeated so often as to render its design difficult to make out,
and to add greatly to the difficulty of reading the text. When the
envelope has been preserved unbroken, the interior is usually perfect,
except where the envelope may have adhered to it. Such double tablets are
often referred to as “case tablets.” The existence of two copies of the
same deed has been of great value for decipherment. One copy often has
some variant in spelling, or phrasing, or some additional piece of
information, that is of great assistance. The envelope was rather fragile
and in many cases has been lost, either in ancient times, or broken open
by the native finders, in the hope of discovering gold or jewels within.
But in any case, the envelope, so long as it lasted, was a great
protection; and there are few tablets better preserved than this class of
document.
In Assyrian times, few “case” tablets are preserved, they seem to have
gone out of fashion except for money-loans and the like. But it may be
merely an accident that so few envelopes are preserved. In the case of
letters, where the same plan of enclosing the letter in an envelope was
followed, hardly any envelopes have been found, because they had to be
broken open to read the letter. The owner of a deed may have had occasion
to do the same, but here there was less excuse, as the envelope was
inscribed with the full text.
In early times, another method of sealing was adopted. A small clay cone
was sealed and the seal attached to the document by a reed, which ran
through both. The seal thus hung down, as in the case of many old
parchment deeds in Europe.
(M16) The deeds were often preserved in private houses, usually in some
room or hiding-place below ground. In the case of the tablets from Tell
Sifr, which were found by Loftus _in situ_, three unbaked bricks were set
in the form of a capital U. The largest tablet was laid upon this
foundation and the next two in size at right angles to it. The rest were
piled on these and on the bricks and the whole surrounded by reed matting.
They were covered by three unbaked bricks. This accounts for their fine
preservation.
Others were stored in pots made of unbaked clay. The pots, as a rule, have
crumbled away, but they kept out the earth around. Sometimes this broke in
and crushed the tablets. In some cases they were laid on shelves round a
small room; but in others they seem to have been kept in an upper story,
and so were injured, when the floor fell through.
(M17) It seems certain that as a rule all deeds were executed in
duplicate, each party receiving a copy. The scribe often appears to have
kept another. At one time copies were also deposited in the public
archives, most probably the city temple or the governor’s palace. There
are indications that copies of deeds executed in the provinces were sent
to the capital. Whether this was in pursuit of a general policy of
centralization or only accidental in the few cases known to us is not
quite clear. In many instances we actually possess duplicates, sometimes
three copies of the same deed.
(M18) These documents are exceedingly varied in contents. The most common
are deeds relating to the sale or lease of houses, fields, buildings,
gardens, and the like; the sale or hire of slaves and laborers; loans of
money, corn, dates, wool, and the like; partnerships formed or dissolved;
adoption, marriage, inheritance, or divorce. But almost any alienation,
exchange, or deposit of property was made the subject of a deed. Further,
all legal decisions were embodied in a document, which was sealed by the
judge and given to both parties to the suit. These were often really deeds
by which the parties bound themselves to accept and abide by the
decisions. Some are bonds or acknowledgments of debt. A great many closely
allied documents are lists of money or goods which had been given to
certain persons. They were evidence of legal possession and doubtless a
check on demand for repayment.
(M19) The bibliography of the subject is best dealt with under each
general division; but reference must be made to works dealing with the
subject as a whole. Professor J. Oppert’s _Documents Juridiques_ was the
first successful attempt to deal with contracts in general and laid the
foundation of all subsequent work. Dr. F. E. Peiser and Professor J.
Kohler’s _Aus Babylonischen Rechtsleben_ deals with the later Babylonian
documents as far as they throw light upon social life and custom.
Professor Sayce’s _Babylonians and Assyrians_ makes large use of the data
given by the contracts. Dr. T. G. Pinches’s _The Old Testament in the
Light of the Monuments of Assyria and Babylonia_ also gives a very full
account of what may be gleaned from them. The present writer’s _Assyrian
Deeds and Documents_ makes an attempt to treat one branch fully. This work
can only present the most essential facts. The whole amount of material is
so vast, so much is yet unpublished, so many side-issues arise, all worth
investigating, that it can only serve to introduce the reader to a
fascinating and wide field of study.
(M20) The material with which we have to deal, for the most part, falls
very naturally into epochs. The early Babylonian documents, though very
numerous, are mostly of the nature of memoranda and include few letters or
contracts. The documents of the First Dynasty of Babylon are extremely
rich in examples of both contracts and letters. Then the Tell Amarna
letters form a distinct group. The Ninevite contracts and letters of the
Sargonid Dynasty are well marked as separate from the foregoing. Lastly,
those of the New Babylonian Empire are a group by themselves. A few
scattered examples survive which form intermediate groups, usually too
small to be very characteristic, and certainly insufficient to justify or
support any theory of the intermediate stages of development.
(M21) It must be observed that to a great extent these groups are not only
separated by wide intervals of time—several centuries as a rule—but that
they are locally distinct. The first comes from Telloh, the larger part of
the second from Sippara, the third from Egypt (or Syria), the fourth from
Assyria, the last from Babylonia. Whether the documents of Sippara in the
third period showed as great divergence from those of the second period as
the Tell Amarna letters do, or whether each group is fairly characteristic
of its age in all localities using the cuneiform script, are questions
which can only be answered when the other documents of that period are
available for comparison.
(M22) The documents of each group have marked characteristics in form of
script, in orthography, in language. So great are the differences that a
slight acquaintance with these characteristics will suffice to fix the
epoch of a given document. For the most part, however, these
characteristics are not such as can appear in translation. They will be
pointed out as far as possible in the opening sections dealing with each
group. The aim will be to select characteristic specimens of each group
for translation and to append a summary of what can be obtained by a study
of the group.