Below you will find an extract from A Collection of

Below you will find an extract from A Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia, c. 2300 – 428 BCE Your task is to read this excerpt and then write an 1000 word paper analyzing it. Your paper should explain what these contracts tell us about the people, their values and the society they lived in. But that’s only half of it. I also want you to compare and contrast their contracts with the contracts of contemporary America. If you use outside sources to help make your points – which you should – you must cite every one according to MLA standards. This is very important! All formatting and citation questions can be answered with a visit to this website: OWL // Purdue Writing Lab The Purdue University Online Writing Lab serves writers from around the world and the Purdue University Writing Lab helps writers on Purdue’s campus. Purdue Writing Lab Purdue Writing Lab
Obviously, every paper should be handed up in pristine condition. A Collection of Contracts from Mesopotamia, c. 2300 – 428 BCE
VIII. Marriage
Contract for Marriage, Reign of Shamshu-ilu-na, c. 2200 B.C.
This marriage took place about 2200 B.C. The bride was a slave, and gained her freedom by marriage, and hence the penalty imposed upon her in case she divorced her husband is greater than that imposed on him in case he divorced her.
RIMUM, son of Shamkhatum, has taken as a wife and spouse Bashtum, the daughter of Belizunu, the priestess (?) of Shamash, daughter of Uzibitum. Her bridal present shall be _____ shekels of money. When she receives it she shall be free. If Bashtum to Rimum, her husband shall say, “You are not my husband,” they shall strangle her and cast her into the river. If Rimum to Bashtum, his wife, shall say, “You are not my wife,” he shall pay ten shekels of money as her alimony. They swore by Shamash, Marduk, their king Shamshu-ilu-na, and Sippar.
Contract for Marriage, Thirteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar II, 591 B.C.
This contract is dated at Babylon, in the thirteenth year of the Biblical Nebuchadnezzar, and is an example of marriage by purchase—a form of marriage which had practically fallen into disuse at this time.
Dagil-ili, son of Zambubu, spoke to Khamma, daughter of Nergal-iddin, son of Babutu, saying: “Give me Latubashinni your daughter; let her be my wife.”Khamma heard, and gave him Latubashinni, her daughter, as a wife; and Dagil-ili, of his own free-will, gave Ana-eli-Bel-amur, a slave, which he had bought for half a mana of money, and half a mana therewith to Khamma instead of Latubashinni, her daughter. On the day that Dagil-ili another wife shall take, Dagil-ili shall give one mana of money unto Latubashinni, and she shall return to her place—her former one. (Done) at the dwelling of Shum-iddin, son of Ishi-etir, son of Sin-damaqu.
Contract of Marriage, Sixth year of Nabonidus, 549 B.C.
This document is dated in the sixth year of Nabonidus, and is a good example of marriage with a dowry.
Nabu-nadin-akhi, son of Bel-akhi-iddin, son of Arad-Nergal, spoke to Shum-ukin, son of Mushallimu, saying, “Give as a wife Ina-Esaggil-banat, your daughter, the virgin, to Uballit-su-Gula, my son.” Shum-ukin hearkened to him, and gave Ina-Esaggil-banat, his virgin daughter, to Uballit-su-Gula, his son. He gave to Nabu-nadin-akhi one mana of money, Latubashinni, Ina-silli-biti-nakhat, Tasli-mu, and the outfit for a house with Ina-Esaggil-banat, his daughter, as her dowry. Shum-ukin has given to Nabu-nadin-akhi Nana-kishirat, his slave toward the one mana of money of the dowry, instead of two-thirds of a mana of money, at the full price. Shum-ukin will pay to Nabu-nadin-akhi one-third of a mana of money, the balance of one mana, and he shall receive his dowry completed to one mana in what it lacks.
_____
IX. Divorce
Contract for Divorce, Third year of Nabonidus, 552 B.C.
This document, which bears the date of the third year of Nabonidus, is apparently a legal divorce, in which the wife is granted alimony. The marriage contracts, given above under VIII, make it unnecessary further to illustrate the workings of Babylonian divorce laws. In VIII, I, the bride was a slave, and at her marriage was given, apparently by her husband, a small sum of money and her freedom. He might, therefore, divorce her by giving her a small alimony of ten shekels; but if she divorces him, she was to be put to death. This contract was not peculiar to the early period of its date, but has parallels in the later period in the case of brides who were slaves. In VIII, 2, the case is different. The husband purchased a free bride; hence, if he divorced her, he must give her an alimony six times as great as that given to the emancipated slave of the previous contract. In VIII, 3, the bride received a dowry, so that no provision for divorce was necessary, since, as the court decisions given below prove, the dowry was always the property of the wife. In case of her divorce the husband lost it, hence this was a check on divorce, while it assured the wife a living in case divorce occurred.
NA’ID-MARDUK, son of Shamash-balatsu-iqbi, will give, of his own free-will, to Ramua, his wife, and Arad-Bunini, his son, per day four qa of food, three qa of drink; per year fifteen manas of goods, one pi sesame, one pi salt, which is at the store-house. Na’id-Marduk will not increase it. In case she flees to Nergal [i.e., she dies], the flight shall not annul it. (Done) at the office of Mushezib-Marduk, priest of Sippar.
_____
X. Adoption
Contract for Adoption, c. 2000 B.C.
This tablet, which dates from before 2000 B.C., needs no explanation. It makes the form and conditions of adoption sufficiently clear.
ARAD-ISKHARA, son of Ibni-Shamash, has adopted Ibni-Shamash. On the day when Arad-Iskhara to Ibni-Shamash, his father, shall say, “You are not my father,” he shall bind him with a chain and sell him for money. When Ibni-Shamash to Arad-Iskhara, his son, shall say, “You are not my son,” he shall depart from house and household goods; but a son shall he remain and inherit with his sons.
Contract for Adoption, Ninth year of Nabonidus, 544 B.C.
This document illustrates not only the method of adoption, but the way in which that process might be made impossible by the will of an ancestor in cases involving property.
Bel-kagir, son of Nadinu, son of Sagillai, spoke thus to Nadinu, his father, son of Ziri-ya, son of Sagillai: To Bit-turni you did send me and I took Zunna as my wife and she has not borne me son or daughter. Bel-ukin, son of Zunna, my wife, whom she bore to her former husband, Niqudu, son of Nur-Sin, let me adopt and let him be my son; on a tablet record his sonship, and seal and bequeath to him our revenues and property, as much as there is, and let him be the son taken by our hands.” Nadinu was not pleased with the word Bel-kagir, his son, spoke to him. Nadinu had written on a tablet, “For the future any other one is not to take their revenues and property,” and had bound the hands of Bel-kagir, and had published in the midst, saying: “On the day when Nadinu goes to his fate, after him, if a son shall be born from the loins of Bel-kagir, his son shall inherit the revenues and properties of Nadinu, his father; if a son is not born from the loins of Bel-kagir, Bel-kagir shall adopt his brother and fellow heir and shall bequeath his revenues and the properties of Nadinu his father to him. Bel-kagir may not adopt another one, but shall take his brother and fellow-heir unto sonship on account of the revenues and properties which Nadinu has bequeathed.” (From this point the tablet is too broken for translation until we reach the witnesses. It was dated) at Babylon in the ninth year of Nabonidus.
Source:
From: George Aaron Barton, “Contracts,” in Assyrian and Babylonian Literature: Selected Transactions, With a Critical Introduction by Robert Francis Harper(New York: D. Appleton & Company, 1904), pp. 256-276
Scanned by: J. S. Arkenberg, Dept. of History, Cal. State Fullerton. Prof. Arkenberg may have modernized the text.

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