A Life Estate of Usufruct: A New Interpretation of Kraeling 6

Between 420 and 402 B. C., Anani wrote for his daughter Jehoishma three deeds of bequest for the same property. The second (K 9) was to take effect upon his death and the third (K 10), immediately. Although the first (K 6) is fragmentary, there is no indication that it, too, was not to take effect immediately. If K 9 granted ownership and title, what did K 6 grant? The text has been newly collated and restored and special scribal features have been thoroughly examined. Three telling omissions-right of devolution, right of alienation, and penalty of nonreclamation clause-as well as certain unique expressions and substantive formulations, cannot be attributed to scribal whimsy; they point to a deliberate attempt to create a life estate of usufruct. Demotic, Greek, Coptic, Roman, Talmudic, Arabic, medieval rabbinic, and modern Israeli legal sources are cited as apposite and comparison is made to other Aramaic documents of usufruct.