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court proceedings, both in the colonies and in Assur. Most numer-
ous are depositions of various kinds and verdicts passed by small
“trading stations” (wabartum), various kàrums, and the City Assembly
in Assur. We also have numerous records of interrogations (by par-
ties and by “attorneys,” called ràbißum), negotiations, agreements, arbi-
trations, and oaths sworn. Most of these records—especially depositions
under oath made before witnesses, records of arbitration and inter-
rogation, and verdicts—originally were in the form of tablets encased
in clay envelopes bearing the impressions of the seals of parties,
judges, and witnesses (both material witnesses and court witnesses),
which lent them legal validity and evidentiary force. All these docu-
ments were found in private archives, apparently because the winner
of a case obtained the file as proof of his rights.1.5 Private Legal Documents^8
The great majority of private legal documents record a variety of
legal transactions in the framework of the overland trade. Most are
the result of commercial credit granted or loans extended and com-
plications connected with them: hundreds of debt notes and quit-
tances, waivers and transfers of debt claims, settlements of accounts,
contracts about the cancellation of debt notes, security (pledge and
guarantee), records of seizure, debt bondage, and forced sale of prop-
erty. There are numerous contracts of service (in the caravans), trans-
port, deposit, agreement, partnership, and investment (in a trader’s
commercial capital, called naruqqum). In addition, there are contracts
of a non-commercial nature, on the purchase of houses and slaves
and pertaining to family law. A number of contracts bearing on con-
veyance, family law, obligations, and business (partnerships and agree-
ments) originate from the Anatolian inhabitants of Kanish and have
to be kept separate from the purely Assyrian ones because of their
special characteristics.
All these records originally were (and many still are) in clay
envelopes, sealed by the party who accepted an obligation (payment,
service, guaranty, transport, deposit), waived a claim or right, or
acknowledged a fact (quittances, sales, settlements, cancellation of a(^8) More than two hundred private legal documents are edited as EL nos. 1–223,
and an additional one hundred loan contracts are edited in Rosen, Studies... The
only monograph on a specific topic is Kienast, Kaufvertragsrecht...
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