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with its slave and house are pledged,^197 hypothecary security (“General-
hypothek”) is most likely.^1987.3.1.3 Execution
If a debt was not paid in time, the pledge could be exploited or
sold to indemnify the creditor (e.g., KTS 2 9, Adana 237E). Such
actions apparently could be undertaken by the creditor himself, but
he might also need help or authorization by the authorities. In EL
188, it is the local Anatolian ruler who “hands over” an Anatolian
family to an Assyrian creditor. In kt a/k 447, an Assyrian kàrum
court decides that four persons (two sons and two slaves) “will enter
with and be held by” a creditor.
Slaves could be pledged and sold for their owner’s debts, but sev-
eral “slave sales” concern free persons pledged for debts and subse-
quently sold into debt slavery. This is revealed by the fact that some
are sold not “for x silver” but “instead of (kìma) x silver”^199 and by
clauses which refer to their redemption. Tablets of value given as
pledges under particular circumstances (not only when they con-
tained a negotiability formula; see 7.2.3.2 above) could be used by
the creditor by collecting the assets or claims that they represented.7.3.2 Guarantee^200
7.3.2.1 Terminology
A guarantor is called qàtàtum(lit. “hands”)^201 and figures as such in
debt notes and other texts where he is identified by name: “PN is
(my, etc.) guarantor,” while the combination “a (rarelybèl)qàtàtim
refers to “the/a guarantor” in general (EL 306, I 478,^202 ICK 1 86,
TPK 1 171, etc.). “azzuztum, “representative,” who “stands for” (the
debt or the debtor), is also used (EL 254:10, AKT 3, 83:8f.).(^197) E.g., kt n/k 1716 (Bayram, “Kültepe Tabletleri...,” 461).
(^198) Also in KTK 95, where the words that all property of the debtor “is the
creditor’s” must refer to legal ownership, not actual possession.
(^199) See Kienast no. 32 and EL 215; note, in kt b/k 121, the purchase of a house
for “silver and the interest on it.”
(^200) Veenhof, “Security for Debt.. .,” II.
(^201) Because the guarantor “takes the hands of,” supports the debtor, or because
he “pulls away” (nasà¢um) the creditor’s hands.
(^202) Matou“, “Bürgschaft...”
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