461
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The nature of the sources—archives of traders in a colony abroad—
explains the absence or rarity of various types of contracts current
in Mesopotamia proper, such as leases of houses and fields, herd-
ing, adoption, and the abundance, in great variety, of those record-
ing commercial transactions, especially those concerning debts (e.g.,
resulting from credit sale and settlement of accounts, real loans, or
“confirmations”).7.1 Sale
7.1.1 Sale Contracts^147
Most sale contracts concern real estate (mainly houses; sale of fields
is only attested among Anatolians) and slaves, that is, goods acquired
for long-term ownership, where a title deed is important. This was
not the case with imported trade goods,^148 which changed hands
rapidly, party by cash sale (ana ita†lim), partly by credit sale. The lat-
ter resulted in debt notes, which state the amount of silver due and
the due date, and stipulate default interest.
Sale was an oral transfer before witnesses, completed by payment
of the price, usually in silver (ana kaspim tadànum, “to hand over for
silver”), which effected the transfer of ownership. Contracts state that
the item has been sold, that the buyer has paid its price, and/or
that the seller is satisfied (“abbù). The “completion clauses” known
from Old Babylonian times are absent, but an unpublished sale of
a house in Assur states that it was voluntary (ina migràtim). The
price paid (usually in silver) is regularly mentioned (not in all Ana-
tolian contracts) but without any qualification.^149 A symbolic act is(^147) See Hecker, “Kauf.. .,” and Kienast, Kaufvertragsrecht... The latter edits the
forty sale contracts known to him (103–63; pp. 85ff. present additional references
to house sales), referred to here as “Kienast no.” The number has now doubled:
see Bayram-Veenhof, “Real Estate.. .”; TPK 1 157–160; VAS 26 100–101; Wilcke,
“Drei Kültepe Texte.. .,” no. 1; Müller-Marzahn, “Fünf Texte.. .,” no. 4, etc. See
also; Donbaz, “A“èd.. .”; Günbattı, “BeßTableti.. .”; Sever, “Köle Satıßi.. .”; and
TPK 1 157–60.
(^148) Kienast nos. 33 and 34 in fact are debt notes, and nos. 35 and 36 (for tex-
tiles and donkeys) are quittances, resulting from sale on credit.
(^149) The single mention of sale “for the full price” (ana “ìm gamer) is in a deposi-
tion (Mayer-Wilhem, “Altassyrische Texte.. .,” no. 2) dealing with the sale of a
slave, where only part of the price had been paid.
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