both followed by persons depicted on a smaller scale, each of them
identified by a caption. The name of one is repeated (at the feet of
the woman) and is qualified as niºgir-si “best man”. The text enu-
merates property and summarizes the fields as zax(LAK 384) U“umgal,
“property of U“umgal.”^137 In my interpretation, text and image com-
bined tell of a marriage and the formation of marital property, partly
given to the groom by single persons (of his family, presumably, as
a marital gift) and partly by the best man and witnesses to the
defloration^138 who may have a common bond with the bride.5.1.4.2 A similar constellation, a man and a woman facing each
other, is depicted on the Blau Stones, one of them naming a field,
its location and a person, the other a group of commodities which
may be for the wedding feast.5.1.4.3 Women frequently occur as sellers of landed property. In
the Grand document juridique, a widow sells a large field designated
as her female gift-field (a“a 5 saºg-rig 9 ), deriving from a dowry
or marital gift.^1395.1.4.4 We noted above gifts to the groom, possibly from his fam-
ily, listed on the U“umgal stele. When Prince Ur-Tarsirsira.k had
led away (from her home) his wife, Nin-ene“, his parents gave him
a rich array of, inter alia, luxury goods and household utensils, per-
haps in lieu of a dowry from the bride.^1405.1.5 Dissolution of marriage
As for marriage, Iri-kagina.k claims by his reforms to have abolished
payments to the steward and the Great Vizier “after a man divorced
a wife.”^141(^137) On zax(LAK 384) see Civil, “The Sign LAK 384”; Westenholz, Old Sumerian...,
no. 45 ii 14–iii 1 = 48 ii 12–14 (cf. no. 44: 8: zaxLugal-inim-e-kam); no. 52: 11;
53: 5.
(^138) Reading é-gi = é-gi 4.
(^139) Wilcke, “Neue Rechtsurkunden.. .,” 54–56: Grand document juridique, I+J.
(^140) DP 75; see Wilcke, “Familiengründung.. .,” 284.
(^141) FAOS 5/1 Ukg. 6 ii 15'–21'; iii 1'–5'.
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