708
The case of runaways is well documented in our material. AT 3
describes an inter-state agreement on the extradition of fugitives, AT
101 is a receipt of extradited runaways, and RS 4.449 is a letter
sent to the king of Ugarit concerning the extradition of a fugitive.
In the former two texts, however, the runaways are simply desig-
nated as “men” and “women.” (The letter from Ugarit deals with
a groom.) Although the words for male and female slave (usually
written with the logograms ìr and géme) are not employed here, it
is clear that the people involved are deprived of their personal free-
dom since they belong to a master. This different terminology may
in fact imply a different measure of freedom. The same holds true
for the boys, women or men who were sold to a new master (e.g.,
AT 66, AT 69). These designations are clearly distinct from the
literal word for slave (ìr), which is significantly used in only one
document of sale (AT 71) to designate the person sold. Nevertheless,
in these examples of sale as well as the cases of suretyship,^35 the
people sold or held as pledges automatically become their new mas-
ter’s property.- Family
Relevant material consists of four marriage contracts, most of them
damaged, one adoption, and a few references from other documents.5.1 Marriage^36
5.1.1 The first step in the conclusion of marriage is attested in AT
- There the groom addresses the father of the bride and asks for
his daughter (ana kallàti“u i“al“u). Next comes the payment of the
bride-price (wadurannu/níg.sal.ús.sá)^37 to the head of the bride’s fam-
ily. In AT 93 the bride-price consists of two (or three?) hundred
shekels of silver and thirty shekels of gold. This large sum may be
explained by the status of the bride, since she is the daughter of the
noble maryannuIlimilimma. In AT 17, the bride-price or part thereof
(called nidnu), paid “in accordance with the custom of Aleppo,” which
(^35) See AT 47 and AT 49 (loan), AT 82 (suretyship), AT 344 (debt note), and
cf. AT 89.
(^36) See Mendelsohn, “On Marriage in Alalakh.”
(^37) For the meaning of wadurannu, see Márquez Rowe and van Soldt, “The Hurrian
Word for ‘Brideprice’...”
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