解説Contract sale of a slave and house-AO 3765-IMG 9158-gradient.jpg
English: Archaic Sumerian tablet: deed of sale of a male slave and a house in the town of Shuruppak Around 2600 B.C. H. Height: 8 cm; length: 8 cm; depth: 2 cm.
Archaic Sumerian tablet: deed of sale of a male slave and a house in the town of Shuruppak Around 2600 B.C. H. Height: 8 cm; length: 8 cm; depth: 2 cm.
In Shuruppak, a very old town "before the flood", a school of scribes wrote its documents in a still rudimentary way. The scribe often notes only the root of the word, leaving it to the reader to fill in the missing elements.
This tablet is the deed of sale of a house and a male slave. The scribe noted down the surface area, which is equivalent to 54 m², and then listed the six witnesses who guaranteed the contract.
The word witness is a good example of the language and writing of the Sumerians of that time. It is written with three signs: 1. LÚ: "man", whose silhouette can be recognized
2. KI: "land", represented as a diamond-shaped plot. 3. INIM: "speech": this abstract notion was expressed by the image of the head, already geometrically shaped, with its beard drawing attention to the mouth and the words coming out of it.
Ref. Musée du Louvre, Atlas database: entry 9633 - http://cartelen.louvre.fr/cartelen/visite?srv=car_not_frame&idNotice=9633