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5.1.4.1 As a rule, marriage transactions foresaw (1) the payment of
a “bride-price” by the groom (or his legal representative) to the
bride’s guardian and (2) the settlement of a dowry on the bride by
her father or whoever exercised legal authority over her. In matri-
monial adoptions, it is the adopter who will receive the bride-price
to be paid by the person with whom the marriage agreement will
be concluded. Prior thereto, the girl’s guardians receive a payment
from the adopter, either as full settlement of the transaction or as
an advance on the total amount that will be received on conclusion
of the marriage. Within this general framework, the texts present us
with a great variety of formulas and, more importantly, of concrete
cases that significantly enlarge the basic pattern sketched above.5.1.4.2 The standard technical term for bride-price (Akk. ter¢atu) is
not systematically used in Nuzi marriage transactions. Often the texts
simply record the assets (primarily silver) that are handed over to
the bride’s family or allude to the prospective payment of the girl’s
bride-price in terms of “her silver” (i.e., her transactional value). In
any case, the bride-price most commonly amounted to forty shekels
of silver,^82 a sum corresponding to the standard purchase price of a
young slave girl.^83 Lesser amounts are also attested, however,^84 pre-
sumably depending on the age and beauty (?) of the bride, on the
nature of the kinship ties between the contracting parties, and last
but not least, on economic factors that might have induced the giv-
ing of a girl as (future) spouse to a slave.5.1.4.3 Noteworthy is the frequent practice of sharing the bride-
price between the groom’s and the bride’s families. In these cases,
the texts state that a certain amount of the silver—received as bride-
price—was handed over to the woman and “bound in her hem” (ina
qanni rakàsu). Quite often, it is further specified that this silver rep-
resents the woman’s dowry (mulùgu/mulùgùtu).^85(^82) For a comprehensive tabulation see Grosz, “Dowry and Brideprice.. .,” 176–77.
(^83) See, e.g., JEN 179: 9–10; HSS 19 124: 11–14; JEN 515: 2; cf. the marriage
contract Gadd 12, which provides for the payment of “40 shekels of silver, (the
value/price) of a girl of Arraphe.”
(^84) With the sole exception of HSS 19 84: 7 (45 shekels of silver).
(^85) Cf. Zaccagnini, “On Late Bronze Age Marriages,” 601.
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