A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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affected by the decree) is condemned to a sixfold payment. If he

cannot pay, he is put to death. LH 108 condemns to drowning a

taverness who used heavier weights to increase the amount of grain

that her customers paid for beer.

8.4.7 Receiving

8.4.7.1 A person found in possession of stolen goods had the bur-

den of proving that he acquired them in good faith, usually by pro-

ducing the seller and witnesses of the sale.^208 If he failed to do so,

he was deemed the thief himself (LE 40; LH 9–10). He would like-

wise be deemed a thief if he received the goods under suspicious

circumstances, for example, from a son or slave without witnesses,

where he ought to have known that they were being transferred

without the authority of the owner (LH 7).

8.4.7.2 The innocent receiver was not merely obliged to return the

goods; he may have faced primary liability to the owner for a penal

payment if the thief was not available, albeit at a multiple lower

than that for theft. It would then be his own responsibility to trace

the seller/thief and recoup his outlay.^209

8.5 Damage to Property

8.5.1 A landowner was liable for negligence or nonfeasance in main-

taining his irrigation canals. If it resulted in the flooding of his neigh-

bors’ land, he had to compensate them for the loss of crops and

other damage. If the damage was to many neighbors and thus beyond

his means to repay, he was sold as a slave and the proceeds divided

among the injured parties (LH 53–56).

8.5.2 To almost every discussion of injury or death in the law codes

there is a rider for the case where the victim was a slave. In all

cases, the remedy is evidently compensation to the owner for loss

or damage to his property. For death by a negligent builder: slave

for slave (LH 231): for blinding or breaking a bone: half his value

(^208) Kümmel, “Sklavenhehlerei...”; Sumer14 (1958) no. 28; TIM 4 33 (oath by
depositee).
(^209) LH 12 and see Westbrook and Wilcke, “Liability.. .”; Westbrook, Studies...,
111–19. YOS 14 40 (= JCS14 (1960) no. 60): innocent partner.
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