7.6.1.3 A special oath by the tenant to cultivate the land is some-
times recorded (e.g., TuM n.F. 1/2 250 = Steinkeller, “Ur III.. .,”
no. 16). LU §a6 imposes a fixed penalty per acre on a tenant who
fails to cultivate the land in the year of the lease. Another special
term, if correctly interpreted, is an oath by the lessor not to pledge
his field, on pain of paying the lessee double the rent.^1337.6.1.4 A complication is that many of the leases, which contain
no information as to term or rent, were in fact antichretic pledges,
the creditor being the tenant in theory but the lessor actually con-
tinuing to farm the land.^1347.6.2 Persons
LU §d1–4 set the fees a doctor may charge for various (successful)
treatments. LU §d5–7 set the monthly and piece-work wages of a
female weaver. Although she is called gemé, a free person may have
been meant in this context (see 4.4.1 above). Free persons were hired
out by sub-contractors, for a fixed period or for the harvest (e.g.,
NATN 98; YOS 4 23, 30), or could hire themselves out (e.g., NRVN
27). Slaves were hired out by their owners: judgments impose the
payment of a slave’s hire for services lost (see 7.1.4 above: NG
189:11–17, 204:2–13, and cf. NG 177:2–16). Payment was in advance;
in NATN 882, a sub-contractor is paid in wool to provide fifteen
hired laborers for the harvest. A daily penalty was imposed by the
contracts for failure to deliver or for absenteeism.7.6.3 Movables
LU §a8' sets bi-annual rates for hiring oxen, which varies according
to whether they are the back, or the front or middle, of the plough
team.^135 NG 209:60–73 mentions oxen hired by the day. In NG 62,
a hired boat sank, but its wreck was recovered and returned to the
owner. He denied the contract altogether, possibly because he might
have been liable for loss of the hirer’s goods (e.g., if the boat had
not been sound).^136(^133) Fish Rylands 38: see Steinkeller, “Money-Lending.. .,” 124 and n. 16.
(^134) Steinkeller, “Ur III.. .”; see 7.3 above.
(^135) They are the same as in Laws of Hammurabi 242–43.
(^136) For another interpretation, see Steinkeller, Sale.. ., 87.
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