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or persons.^44 Typically, the penalty for a stolen animal was payment
in triple, whereas the penalty for breaking a contract was double.
The court could also issue an order (rikiltu). A unique court order
forbade a man from entering the house of a named woman not his
wife^45 (see 3.1). A court order from Nippur prohibited a man from
leaving the city gate (and declared that the herald (nàgiru) would be
responsible if he did).^46
If a challenger’s claim to property was rejected as spurious, in
addition to reaffirming the holder’s claim, the court (in these cases,
the king) could impose a severe penalty. For example, in two sepa-
rate challenges to a landed estate, the plaintiffs were ordered to for-
feit their own holdings.^47 In the same text, a legitimate claim to part
of the estate was also heard by the king. After hearing the evidence,
the court ordered the claimants compensated with an equivalent
property and then ordered that the claimants’ archival “sealed tablet
of no contest” be handed over to the newly ratified owner. This
measure would have precluded the compensated claimants from rais-
ing the same claim in the future.
If a sealed tablet recording obligations of a party had been made,
the court could order the tablet broken once those obligations were
met.^48
The inviolability of the court’s decision is reflected in the name
given to the document recording the proceedings, decision, witnesses,
and oath, which was known as a “tablet of no contest” (†uppi là
ragàmim).^49 A challenge to the court’s decision, by the plaintiffor the
defendant, was subject to severe penalties in excess of those imposed
in the original decision.^50 The court could also order the parties to
take an oath not to challenge the decision in the future.^513.2.4 In one tablet from Ur, parties in dispute over a slave went
first to one priest and then another before going to the mayor, who(^44) UET 7 10.
(^45) UET 7 8.
(^46) UM 29–16–340 (= Brinkman MSKH 24).
(^47) BBSt. 6.
(^48) E.g., UET 7 7.
(^49) E.g., UET 7 2, 6, 7, 8.
(^50) UET 7 10.
(^51) UET 7 1.
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