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is preferred in Anatolian contracts, where it may even be used for
houses (BIN 6 236) and persons (EL 15). Although “apartupledges
were used among Assyrians, as letters show, no contracts mention
them, which suggests that they were based on oral agreements.^191
Assyrian contracts always useerubbàtumfor pledged immovable objects
(houses; fields are not attested) and persons, which “enter” into the
power or household of the creditor.^192 Pledges “deposited,” “given,”
or “left to” the creditor are “held” (ka""ulum) by him. Pledging is also
meant when it is stated that “the creditor’s hand rests on” (qàtum
ina... “aknat), that he can “seize” (ßabàtum),^193 or “look at” (“has a
claim on,” or “owns,” dagàlum)^194 an object or person. Persons or
objects not identified as “apartumor erubbàtum, but simply said to be
“held” by the creditor or “on/to which the debt is bound” (rakis ina
ßèr object/ina qaqqad person; frequent with Anatolian debtors) also
function as pledges.7.3.1.2 Nature
The question whether pledges were primarily hypothecary (“Sicher-
heitspfand”) or possessory (“Eigentumspfand”),^195 allows no simple
answer. Kienast considers houses hypothecary pledges, because there
is no evidence that they substitute for the debt, and actual posses-
sion (and hence antichretic use) would be excluded by default inter-
est. While this may be true in many cases, possession of houses by
creditors seems certain in EL 92 (Anatolians), TPK 88, 194, TC 3
232, and 240, where whoever pays (back) “takes the house,” while
the creditor has “to leave” it. Single slaves registered as erubbàtu
pledge or said “to be held” by the creditor probably also “entered”
the house of the creditor,^196 but when an Anatolian family, together(^191) See EL 292 and 179 (collated), where the objects pledged have to be enu-
merated (zakàrum) in the presence of witnesses.
(^192) The verb eràbumis used of pledged persons in EL 86 and kt a/k 447; the
lexicalized doubled stem, “to pledge,” is used of a house in TPK 1 106 and 194,
and of a person in EL 2.
(^193) “To seize,” in EL 91:9ff.; “hands resting on,” in EL 24:15f.//OIP 27 59:29f.
(^194) AKT 1 45; EL 14, 92.
(^195) And we might add whether, in that case, pledges were considered antichretic
(for capital or interest) or not.
(^196) Kt 89/312; note also EL 252.
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