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out by casting lots.^104 Responsibility for organizing the division lay
with the eldest brother, who might swear a declaratory oath in the
temple as to the proper discharge of his functions (CT 8 3a:21–28 =
UAZP 194). In southern Mesopotamia, the practice for recording a
division was to detail all the shares on a single tablet; in the North,
separate tablets were drafted for the share of each individual heir.6.3.1.4 The heirs each received an equal share of the estate. Any
son whose father had not provided a betrothal payment on his behalf
during his lifetime was entitled to receive it from the estate in addi-
tion to his share (LH 166). Grandsons inherited per stirpes; they divided
between them the share that their father would have received. The
eldest son received an extra share (Akk. elâtum, Sum. sib.ta). There
were two methods of computing it, varying in part by region. Tablets
from Nippur, Ur and Kutalla record 10 percent of the total estate
prior to division; tablets from Larsa, Mari and again Kutalla record
a double share for the first-born. In Jean, Tell Sifr 4 from Kutalla,
the eldest receives 10 percent of the land but more than a double
share of prebends and slaves.^105 According to LH 170, the eldest
also had the right to select a share first—presumably this refers to
his extra share prior to allocation of the ordinary shares by lot.6.3.1.5 Division could be postponed, as regards all or part of the
estate, sometimes for generations.^106 In the meantime, the undivided
heirs remained joint owners. LE 16 forbade the advance of credit
in the form of fungibles (qìptum) to an undivided son. The reason
was that a creditor might claim repayment from the resources of the
whole estate, impinging upon the other heirs’ notional shares. According
to Charpin, the purely theoretical division of houses (not by rooms
or stories but by ground area) was designed to frustrate creditors,
who might otherwise have seized the whole house for one of the
heir’s debts.^107(^104) Jean, Tell Sifr 44:46–47. The Akkadian for “lot” (isqum) could also be used
to indicate the inheritance share itself (MDP 24 339).
(^105) See Kraus, “Erbrecht.. .,” 12; Charpin, Archives.. ., 36.
(^106) Kraus, JCS3, 220; Charpin, Archives.. ., 175.
(^107) Archives.. ., 178.
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