is not stated. The consequences of default, where expressed, vary:
substitution (UET 3 22 = Sauren, no. 20) or payment of a set sum
(SNATBM 193 = Sauren, no. 9).7.5.6 A special case concerns the duty of a creditor to return to
the debtor upon payment a sealed tablet recording a debt of one
mina. If he fails to do so by a set date, his surety undertakes to pay
the ex-debtor double (NATN 403).^1307.5.7 The surety had recourse against the debtor to recoup his
expenditure. In MVN 3 219 (= Steinkeller S. 1) discussed above,
the sellers’ guarantor, having paid the fine (either to the buyer or
directly to the owner), extracts from the sellers a promise under oath
to reimburse him. In NG 195:2–10, the debtor gives the surety a
slave as a pledge to secure the surety’s undertaking.7.6 Hire
7.6.1 Land^131
7.6.1.1 LU §e4 fixes the unit price for house rental.
7.6.1.2 Arable land was leased by the great institutions or by pri-
vate prebend holders (“uku land) for cultivation (apin-lá/uru 4 -e-dè).
The tenant paid in advance a small sum of silver or barley, called
má“. In this context, the term has been identified as an irrigation
tax, which was intended to cover work on the field by the govern-
ment and which the landowner passed on to the appropriate office.^132
The rent, where stated, amounted to a one-half or one-third share
of the crop (Fish Rylands 40: explicitly for one third). The term is
occasionally stated as three years (Fish Rylands 40), in one case for
a development lease (TuM n.F. 1/2 255+257 = Waetzold WO 9,
201f.). Otherwise it is likely to have been annual.(^130) See Steinkeller, Sale.. ., 88.
(^131) Kraus, “Feldpachtverträge.. .”; Steinkeller, “Ur III.. .,” appendix, nos. 1–5,
12–21.
(^132) Steinkeller, “Renting of Fields.. .,” 113–28. Other scholars have taken it to
be a small advance on the rent; see Maekawa, “Rent.. .”; Kraus, “Feldpacht-
verträge.. .,” 192–96.
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