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cause of these agreements, whose juridical features require further
analysis.^634.4.1.5 Persons handed over to creditors as antichretic pledges until
full repayment of the loan (i.e., capital plus interest) are a typical
feature of Nuzi credit practices (cf. 7.5 below). The personal status of
the pledge (tidennu) was analogous to that of a slave, insofar as he
was bound to the creditor by a daily work obligation.4.4.2 Treatment
Aside from an isolated occurrence of the well-known Old Babylonian
term abbuttu(HSS 5 35), which designates some sort of (body?) mark
for slaves, the Nuzi texts do not provide significant evidence as con-
cerns the personal treatment of permanent or temporary unfree per-
sons. Ration lists merely attest to maintenance provided by palace
or private households.4.4.2.1 Chattel slaves and their offspring could be the object of
transfer and outright sale—under different circumstances and for
different purposes—by their owners. Persons in debt servitude, that
is, handed over as pledges in antichretic tidennùtu contracts, could
not be sold or transferred to third parties. On the other hand, fail-
ure of the pledged person to work for the creditor incurred payment
of compensation, fixed at one mina of copper or one sùtuof barley
per day. This sum corresponds to the standard Mesopotamian daily
wages or hire for a slave.4.4.2.2 Special attention should be drawn to the penalties recorded
in a few contracts dealing with people who gave themselves into
servitude ( JEN 449, 452, 457). If they should leave their master’s
house and/or declare that they are no (longer) slaves, their eyes will
be gouged out and they will be sold “for a price.”4.4.3 Termination
The Nuzi texts do not provide explicit evidence of manumission of
chattel slaves owned by private persons. Debt slaves, persons handed
over as security, could be released only after full repayment of the(^63) Cf. Eichler, Indenture.. ., 47.
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