Marriage and Divorce Documents from
the Ancient Near East
Mesopotamian
(Translator: J.J. Finkelstein)
Marriage Contract[a]
Old Assyrian, 19th century B.C. Text: B. Hrozný,
Inscriptions Cunéiformes du Kultépé (Praha,
1952). Transliteration and translation, Hrozný, in
Symbolae Koschaker (Studia et
Documenta II, 1939), 108ff. For bibliography
of discussions cf. H. Hirsch, Orientalia,
xxxv (1966), 259f
Laqipum has married Hatala, daughter of Enishru. In
the country (i.e., Central Anatolia) Laqipum (5) may not
marry another (woman)—(but) in the City (i.e., Ashur) he
may marry a hierodule.[1] If within
two years she (i.e., Hatala) does not provide him with
offspring, (10) she herself will purchase a slavewoman,
and later on, after she[2] will have
produced a child by him, (15) he may then dispose of her
by sale wheresoever he pleases. [3]
Should Laqipum choose to divorce her (text: "him"), he
must pay (her) five minas of silver- (20) and should
Hatala choose to divorce him, she must pay (him) five
minas of silver. Witnesses: Masa, Ashurishtikal, (25)
Talia, Shupianika.
[1] Akk. qadi$tum, who,
according to Middle Assyrian Laws § 40, may be married to
a free citizen, but her status would probably have been
inferior to that of a "first" wife under the circumstances
envisaged in this contract.
[2] The translation assumes that the
subject is the slavewoman, but it is equally possible that
Hatala is the subject, if the verb is rendered "provided"
rather than "produced," but the sense is not materially
affected either way.
[3] The rendering is based on the fact
that the pronoun and the verb are masculine, but
considering that the masculine is also used throughout in
the following two clauses, even when Hatala is clearly the
object of the first and the second, it might be presumed
that she is the subject here also, which would configure
better with the fact that it is she who was to provide the
slavewoman to begin with, and presumably would also retain
the right to sell her.
[a] ANET p.
{543}.
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Last modified 10/2/95
prepared by
Alan Humm
humm@ccat.sas.upenn.edu