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deposition, twenty-seven loan documents, thirteen documents of sale
and five of barter, and two deeds of gift.1.3 The contracts are drafted in objective style, usually followed by
a list of witnesses and the date. (Year names correspond to the
Yamkhad date formulas.) Seals (and occasionally hems of garments)
of the party under obligation as well as witnesses were as a rule
impressed not on the tablets themselves but on their envelopes, of
which only a few, mostly fragmentary examples, have been found.^21.4 In addition to legal documents, several administrative records
such as debt notes or ration lists shed important light on legal prac-
tice in late Middle Bronze Age Alalakh.1.5 The parties to the transactions and in litigation are mostly
drawn from the circle of the royal court: the rulers themselves, their
family members, officials, and other influential persons.- Constitutional and Administrative Law
2.1 Organs of Government
2.1.1 The King^3
In this period, Alalakh was part of the kingdom of Yamkhad. We
know from AT 1 and AT 456 that Abban, king of Yamkhad, had
assigned to his younger brother Yarim-Lim the province of Alalakh
as his “share” (zittum; cf. AT 456:38, AT 95:obv. 18), transmitted
by inheritance (AT 6), with the responsibility for governing it and
the obligation to preserve the unity of and loyalty to the kingdom
of Aleppo. As a result of this agreement, the question whether Yarim-
Lim and his successors should be called governors rather than kings
is of minor importance.
The authority of the rulers of Alalakh over their territory was
clearly bounded by the sovereignty of Aleppo. Indeed, the overlord
of Yamkhad (e.g., AT 7, AT 9, AT 95, or AT 455) or his officials
(e.g., AT 8) are found presiding over transactions within the juris-(^2) See Collon, The Seal Impressions.. ., 139ff.
(^3) See Klengel, “Königtum und Palast.. .,” and “Die Palastwirtschaft.. .”; Bunnens,
“Pouvoirs locaux...”
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