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1.2 Edicts
Copies of three royal decrees canceling debts have been preserved.^2
The edict of King Ammi-Íaduqa of Babylon (AS, ca. 1640) is the
most complete, with a preamble and twenty-two paragraphs. That
of King Samsu-iluna of Babylon (ca. 1740) has only a date and three
paragraphs extant, while a fragmentary text contains about six para-
graphs of the edict of a third Babylonian king, whose identity is not
known.1.3 Administrative Orders
These are contained in letters from the king to his high officials.^3
In addition to purely administrative matters such as public works,
they contain many directives concerning the administration of jus-
tice: to try or re-try cases, to execute judgments, or to correct abuses
of power.1.4 Private legal documents
These are derived from family or business archives, such as that of
the businessman Balmunamhe, who was active in the kingdom of
Larsa in the reigns of Warad-Sin and Rim-Sin (ca. 1830–1790).^4
The vast majority (several thousand have been published) are records
of legal transactions, such as sale, lease, hire, loan, partnership, mar-
riage, adoption, or division of inheritance. They are characterized
by an objective description of the transaction, followed by a list of
witnesses and the date. They were usually impressed with the seals
of the witnesses and the party under obligation. The other category
is records of litigation: a very summary account of the parties, the
object of litigation, and the result, with an occasional mention of the
decisive proof. In this period they were private documents, drawn
up most probably by the losing party for the benefit of the winning(^2) Edited by Kraus, Verfügungen.. .; also Hallo, “Slave Release.. .” Cf. Lieberman,
“Reforms...”
(^3) References to the letters are mostly to the series in which they are edited:
Altbabylonische Briefe (AbB).
(^4) Studied by Van de Mieroop, “Archive... .” See also Charpin, Archives...;
Goetze, “Archive of Atta...”
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