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in a number of wills. Common to all of them is the designation of
a woman—as a rule, the testator’s wife—as successor to the testa-
tor in the legal status and powers of paterfamilias. (The texts at times
expressly mention the technical term abbùtu.) Note the summary state-
ment in HSS 19 19: 31–32: “I have made (her = the testator’s wife)
my equal.”5.3.3 The duties imposed on sons in their behavior towards the
appointed (mother-)guardian and the sanctions for breach certainly
reproduce the standard complex of rules inherent in the customary
way of life of Nuzi family groups. The main filial duties are to serve
(palà¢u) the paterfamiliasand to obey (“emû) him or her; additional
tasks include mourning (bakû), and burying (qebèru) him or her.^1035.3.4 Sanctions for disobedience or failure to serve include physi-
cal punishments such as putting the son into fetters (kurßû), casting
him into prison (bìt kìli), or handing him over to a workhouse (bìt
nupàri).^104 Additional sanctions foresee the placing of a slave mark
(abbuttu) and disinheritance (kirbàna¢epû; lit., “to break the clod”)^105 —
note that the last measure is at times expressly excluded from the
legal powers awarded to female guardians. In HSS 19 17: 20–27
the testator states the obligation of his three sons to serve their sis-
ter for her entire lifetime and adds, “if any of my three sons fails
to obey fPN, fPN may deal with him as if he were her own son.”5.4 Adoption
5.4.1 The widespread practice of adoption represents one of the
most typical features of Nuzi private institutions. Historical antecedents
can be easily traced back to Old Babylonian traditions and find
significant parallels in late second millennium Syrian documentation.
A preliminary observation is in order. The vast corpus of Nuzi legal
documents that have been grouped together under the general and
rather inadequate heading of “adoption” attests to a great variety of(^103) Note that these duties are also imposed on adopted sons.
(^104) Selected references in CAD K, 569a, s.v. kurßû; 360b, s.v. bìtkìli; CAD N/2,
342a, s.v. bìt nupàri.
(^105) Cf. CAD A1, 50a, s.v. abbùtu[sic!]; but see Cassin, RA57 (1963), 134–35;
CAD K, 403a, s.v. kirbànu.
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