A Neo-Assyrian Estate Sale Contract from the Late Seventh Century

This article provides a first edition of an intact Neo-Assyrian estate sale from the final period of the empire in the late seventh century BCE. The publication is not based on the original tablet but on a cast kept at the Akademie der Wissenschaften und der Literatur in Mainz. At the moment the location of the original tablet is unknown, but it was almost certainly found in modern southeastern Turkey, most likely in the Mardin area, close to the Syrian border. The document uses the standard formulae known from many Neo-Assyrian legal transactions, and the tablet's excellent state, reflected by the cast, makes it exemplary. Moreover, the text adds to our knowledge new, previously unattested personal names, and we also get to know the identities of two high officials (a mayor and a royal delegate) and a chariot driver who all act as witnesses.