589
5.1.2.4 Common to all marriage transactions—whether straightfor-
ward marriage contracts or the various types of adoption—is the
transfer of the present or prospective bride to the groom or to the
person who will choose the groom. The groom may be a son or a
relative of the adopter, or an outsider, a freeborn person or a slave.^77
The bride is always “given” (nadànu) or “taken” (leqû) by someone
who exercises authority over her; grooms are never “given” and/or
“taken” in marriage.5.1.3 Adoption of Young Men for Marriage
The Nuzi texts also attest to some adoptions in “sonship” (màrùtu)
in which the adopter provides (or will provide) a wife to the adoptee.^78
At times the bride is the adopter’s daughter;^79 alternatively, the
adopter will choose an outsider to become the adoptee’s spouse. In
most cases, these agreements exhibit some of the typical features of
real adoptions, including the adoptee’s obligation to serve the adopter
as long as he or she lives. Note further that the use of the legal
term zittu(“inheritance share”) applies to the bride that the adopter
will procure for his adopted son.^805.1.4 Marriage Payments
The Nuzi evidence pertaining to marriage payments is substantially
in line with the Old Babylonian legal tradition; at the same time, it
shows some peculiarities that have long been the object of scholarly
attention.^81(^77) The most recurrent formula in daughtership (and daughter-in-lawship) and sis-
tership adoptions is that the adopter will give the girl “as wife to whomever he
wishes” (ana a““ùti a“ar¢adu inandin). Note that various kallùtutransactions expressly
provide for the bride’s perpetual bondage as wife of a sequence of slave grooms.
See, e.g., AASOR 16 30: 7–12: “And fPN [i.e., the adopter] to whomever among
her slaves she wishes, will give fPN 2 [i.e., the adoptee] as wife. If her first husband
dies, she will give her to another man. If the second man dies, she will give her
to a third man. If the third man dies, she will give her to a fourth man. If the
fourth man dies—and so forth.” Cf. AASOR 16 42; JEN 431, 437, 620. AASOR
16 23: 12–13: “If ten of her husbands have died, then she will give her as wife to
an eleventh.”
(^78) Cf. Stohlman, Real Adoption.. ., 151–76.
(^79) E.g., Gadd 51; HSS 19 49, 51.
(^80) E.g., HSS 19 45: 6; 39: 5–6; 40: 4–5.
(^81) Cf. Breneman, Nuzi Marriage.. ., passim; Grosz, “Dowry and Brideprice...”;
Zaccagnini, “Transfers.. .,” 151–53; Zaccagnini, “On Late Bronze Age Marriages,”
600–602.
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