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ing rights in the land could present themselves (MAL B 6). This
procedure is attested in practice in KAJ 310, which lists the goods
deposited in a “a¢ùru building, among which is (l. 19) “a box of
proclamations of the herald for the houses of the city of A““ur.”^102
Completion of this formality was certified by a committee which val-
idated the transaction, thus making it operative, and drafted three
tablets. One was kept by the qèpu officials;^103 the other two were
given to the buyer and the municipal authority (represented by the
town scribe), respectively.^104 Assyria must thus have had a public reg-
istry of land-sale contracts. Once completed, the sale was recorded
in a “validated tablet” (†uppu dannutu),^105 which made it final and valid
against third parties. The tablet was handed over with each succes-
sive sale as a title deed (KAJ 132), but a valid sale could be made
without it (KAJ 149:22–25).^1067.1.3 Sale was accompanied by a warranty against eviction (MAL
C+G 2–6) and hidden defects. In slave-sale contracts, the seller is
made liable for all claims regarding the slave (KAJ 169, 170), for
the whole country.^107 In sales of land, the seller’s duty to free (zakû)
the land of claims takes the form of public notice, which enables
him to indemnify anyone opposed to the sale. In this way the buyer
is safeguarded against eviction until the drafting of the “validated
tablet,” which annuls all further claims to the property.^108(^102) Cf. Postgate, Archive of Urad-”erùa.. ., no. 50.
(^103) Cf. the restitution by Roth, Law Collections.. ., 177. Finkelstein, “Billa...,”
123 ff., translates qèpuas “superintendant”; followed by Cardascia, Lois.. ., 270–271
(“greffier”).
(^104) Cf. Villard, “Archivage.. .,” rather than the classic analysis of Driver and
Miles, Assyrian Laws.. ., 320, and Cardascia, Lois.. ., 275, for whom the two tablets
were given to the two parties to the contract. As Villard rightly observes, this prac-
tice would be contrary to customary Mesopotamian law of sale and would contra-
dict the formula of the contracts, which are drafted from the buyer’s point of view.
(^105) Postgate, “Middle Assyrian Tablets.. .,” 18. There is perhaps also an indi-
rect allusion to this official act in the expression dannat “arri(MAL A 45), which
would designate a sale of land validated by royal authority and henceforth incon-
testable. Cf. Aynard and Durand, “Documents.. .,” 12–13, followed by Roth, Law
Collections.. ., 193, n. 27.
(^106) Postgate, “Middle Assyrian Tablets.. .,” 31–32.
(^107) Cf. the interpretation of Wilcke, “Testamente.. .,” 214–15, n. 30 regarding
the clause “for every quay, for every border” (ana kàre ana ta¢ume): it does not limit
the validity of the contract to Assyria alone but specifies where suit is to be brought,
should the seller be abroad.
(^108) Koschaker, Neue keilschriftliche.. ., 32–34.
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