A History of Ancient Near Eastern Law

510 

full price, the text goes on to state that PN 1 will pay (inamdin) PN 2 ,

the first named seller, two garments valued at nine shekels, as well

as a large jar of liquor and an amount of grain. The unusual use

of a verb in the durative is unexplained, as are the payments above

the nine-shekel price of the cow. It has been suggested that these

additional commodities served as interest on the purchase price not

yet paid and potentially were regarded as a loan from the sellers to

the buyer.^120

7.1.2.1 In another text from Ur, the buyer contracts with an indi-

vidual to purchase a suckling calf.^121 The text is broken, and it is

not possible to determine if the price has been or is to be paid in

the future. In any event, the man receiving the money is to deliver

the calf early in the following year. In another contractual purchase,

a merchant (tamkàru) receives a sum of money as the price for a

girl.^122 As merchants frequently served as buyers under contract, the

girl presumably was to be purchased and delivered by the merchant

at a later date.

7.1.3 Variations in the formulary of sale contracts, including con-

tingency clauses, may have their origins in different locales.^123

7.2 Loan

Few loan texts are known, and only loans of grain or personal items—

not silver—are thus far attested. Rates of interest are not specified.

7.2.1 Terms

Two types of loan, both well known from preceding periods, are

attested: the ¢ubullu(Sum. ur 5 .ra), an interest-bearing loan of grain,

and the ¢ubuttu (variant: ¢ubuttàtu), a loan given without interest. A

singular text from Ur records the loan from one woman to another

of personal items to be returned or recompensed at a later time (see

4.3.1 above). Another text records that to meet his regular contri-

butions to the temple brewer, a man borrowed (i¢butu) from that

(^120) So Petschow, see Gurney, Middle Babylonian.. ., 103, note to rev. 1–3.
(^121) UET 7 35.
(^122) TuM 5 72 (= Petschow MB Rechtsurkunden 7).
(^123) See Gurney, Middle Babylonian.. ., 7.
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