508
contract, names of the parties, operative clauses, any special con-
tingencies, witnesses, date, and seal impressions^112 of participants and
witnesses. If it records certain obligations still to be met, the text
might add that when so-and-so fulfills the conditions, his tablet will
be broken.7.1 Sale
The formulary of the Middle Babylonian “purchase” texts records
that the purchaser bought some commodity from the seller. The sale
was complete once the purchase price was accepted.7.1.1 Sale texts record an executed contract; in a very few cases
(see 7.1.2.1), contingent obligations remained to be fulfilled. The pur-
chase of persons, animals, furniture, and land is attested.^113 The writ-
ten contract could serve as the deed of title.^114 The sale contract is
written from the buyer’s point of view,^115 sealed by the seller and
ultimately retained by the buyer. Most sales were recorded on clay
tablets, and additional information about land sales is provided by
narûs (see 6.1 above). The texts of the clay tablets are formulaic,
employing set phrases in Sumerian known from earlier periods: the
contract includes operative, completive, and contingency clauses. The
texts close with a list of the witnesses, a reference to the sealing of
the document, and the date.7.1.1.1 Operative Clauses
The operative clauses include a description of the sale item, a state-
ment that PN 1 (the buyer) has purchased (i“àm, in.(“i.)sa 10 , ilqi) the
item from (itti) PN 2 (the seller), and a statement that the amount
paid was the full price (“ám.til.la.bi.“è, ana “ìmì“u gamrùti). This was
followed by a statement of the price the sellers received (ma¢ir). In(^112) In lieu of a seal, a fingernail could be pressed into the clay.
(^113) No land-sale texts from this period have been recovered (see Oelsner, Review.. .,
290–91, but note Gurney, Middle Babylonian.. ., 4, n. 8, referring to a Sippar tablet
inventoried in ABAW 87 100, IB 1018b). Nevertheless, BBSt. 3 (see 6.1 above) cer-
tainly attests to the existence of such documents and their role as proof of title.
(^114) See BBSt.3 (6.3.1.1), in which sons of the purchaser of a piece of a disputed
estate are sent home to find their father’s sealed record. The king ordered the tablet
handed over to the new owner of the property.
(^115) UET 7 23 may be an exception, written from the point of view of the sell-
ers; see Gurney, Middle Babylonian.. ., 5.
WESTBROOK_f12–484-520 8/27/03 12:27 PM Page 508