A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

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B. ALIV

1. Sources of Law

1.1 The sources of this period (which may be called Middle Baby-

lonian or early Late Bronze Age) range from the reign of Idrimi to

that of Ilimilimma, his grandson, thus covering three generations.

The excavations of the royal archives of Level IV have yielded

five international legal documents and thirty-three domestic legal

texts. The former include two treaties (AT 3, between Idrimi and

Pilliya of Kizzuwatna, and AT 2, between Niqmepa and Irteshub

of Tunip), two records of litigation presided over by the Mittanian

overlord Shaushtatar (AT 13 and AT 14) and one receipt of run-

aways who fled from Aleppo (AT 101).^23

1.2 The domestic legal documents are virtually all royal deeds. The

royal seal is regularly impressed on the upper part of the obverse

of these tablets, and the mention “before RN” (ana/ina pàni RN)

introduces the operative part of over two thirds of the texts. The

kings involved are mainly Niqmepa, Idrimi’s son, who presides over

almost half the extant transactions, and his son, Ilimilimma.

1.3 The content of these documents is relatively varied. There are

ten contracts of sale, five of loan (two more with the king as party

and no witnesses), four of surety, four marriage contracts, one deed

of gift, and one adoption. One text concerns the promotion of an

individual to the category of maryannu-ship decreed by the king,

another deals with rights of succession, and a third concerns for-

feited property following the execution of the owner. A few are too

fragmentary for classification.

1.4 The schema of these texts follows a regular pattern. The seal

is usually impressed at the head of the tablet.^24 The transaction

is always phrased in objective style. The list of witnesses, usually

(^23) For the interpretation of this text, see Márquez Rowe “Halab in the XVIth
and XVth Centuries BC.. .,” 186ff.
(^24) King Niqmepa used a dynastic seal, namely the seal of a predecessor named
AbbaAN who may have ruled Aleppo in the course of the sixteenth century; see
Márquez Rowe, “Halab in the XVIth and XVth Centuries BC.. .,” 182ff.
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