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mother and it is probably after her death that the case was started.
In AT 11, Tatteya, sister of Yarim-Lim, ruler of Alalakh, brings a
lawsuit against her brother claiming (obviously wrongly) that her
father had assigned the town under dispute as a share to her (and
not to him). The verb used here is wuddû, and to judge also from
AT 6 (and probably also AT 96), it seems to have been the tech-
nical term to define the disposition of one’s property to take effect
after death.- Contracts
7.1 Sale^17
Among the documents that describe the transfer of ownership of
property, sale documents are by far the best represented. They are
styled from the point of view of the buyer (ex latere emptoris); the stan-
dard statement explicitly says that the buyer has purchased (“âmum)
the object in question from the seller for a certain amount and that
he has paid it in full (ana “ìm gamrim).^187.1.1 Towns with their borderlands and territories frequently con-
stitute the object transferred. Also attested are houses and vineyards.
AT 65, the only sale document concerning a person, actually describes
a self-sale for debts.7.1.2 The price of land consists of amounts of silver, sometimes
supplemented by quantities of goods and animals. The completion
clause declares that the payment is made (apil) and that “his heart—
the seller’s—is satisfied” (libba“u †àb). There is one example (AT 54)
that testifies to the ritual of cutting the neck of a sheep as a sym-
bol of conclusion of the agreement; in another text, (AT 60) the rit-
ual consists of an oil libation.^197.2 Exchange
Legally speaking, hardly any distinction is made between sale and
exchange. In all cases, the object exchanged is a town, and the rulers(^17) See Kienast, “Die altbabylonischen Kaufurkunden.. .,” and “Kauf,” 530ff.
(^18) See Skaist, “”ìmru gamru.. .,” with a discussion of the evidence from Alalakh
VII.
(^19) See Malul, Legal Symbolism, 346ff.
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