extended over a long period—four and nine years—but in the latter
case, the seller could still withhold the object sold from the buyer.^1857.1.5.2.3 Purchases of animals (donkeys) follow the pattern of slave
sales.^186 The forms of the central Babylonian contracts for the pur-
chase of movables show even more clearly than those from ΩGirsu
that the role of the “seller” is, for the most part, passive. Note espe-
cially the wording “the price has been filled into the seller’s hands.”
Only when he has received the price must the seller do something:
he has to cause the object to move from his own side of the pestle
into the purchaser’s possession. Therefore, with movables, the change
of (rightful) possession marks the change of ownership.7.1.5.3 Northern Babylonia
7.1.5.3.1 The Man-i“tusu Obelisk (ELTS 40) represents the north-
ern Presargonic (Sippar, Ki“) and Sargonic tradition of registers of
records on stone and clay (Dilbat, E“nuna) but on a much grander
scale and in much greater detail. After an introductory section (mostly
lost), the measurements of the fields are given, then the “field price”
(ºg. 10 .“ 5 ) in barley is calculated in silver, followed by the “field
i“kinù” (..ºg.“ 5 ), the “field gift” (ºg..“ 5 ) and the list of
“field owners” receiving (“eating”) the silver (bèlù “ 5 , .-
). A list of “brothers, field owners” may follow. After several such
transactions are summarized, the text describes the borders of the
area acquired and enumerates five “field witnesses” (..“ 5 ).
It then states that 190 citizens of Dùr Su"en, i.e., “Fortress of the
Moon God,” to which the fields belong, have been fed. Forty-nine
individually identified citizens of Agade follow as “field witnesses.”^187
The remark that king Man-i“tusu has bought the fields ends that
section of the text. Mutatis mutandis, the same is then repeated for
fields belonging to the cities of Gir 13 -tab, Marad, and Ki“. Only at
Ki“does a woman appear among the “field owners.”(^185) MVN 3 25, 81.
(^186) MVN 3 100 and Krecher, “Neue sumerische.. .,” no. 20, from Umma; Stein-
keller, “Two Sargonic.. .,” no. 2, possibly from northern Babylonia.
(^187) See now Foster, “The Forty-nine Sons...”
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