Cuneiform Tablet: Old Assyrian Legal Text

Square shaped clay tablet with cuneiform writing on both sides. The tablet is inscribed with ruled lines of text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language The tablet probably comes from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia), from the period karum-Kanesh level II (c. 1927-1836 B.C.E). The text is a loan contract recording a debt of silver owed by Imlik-Ea to Ela. Text reads: (obv.) 11 GIN2 KUG.BABBAR / s,a-ru-pa2-am / i-s,i2-ir / Im-li-ik--a / E-la i-šu / iš-tu3 ha-mu-uš-tim / ša Li-u2-ši2-im / (rev.) ITI.1.KAM Ti-i=na-tum / li-mu-um / A-al-DUG3 / ki-ma a-wa-at ka3-ri-im / s,i2-ib-tam2 / u2-s,a-ab2 / IGI Ša-lim-A-šur3 / IGI Puzur4-A-šur3 11 shekels of refined silver are owed by Imlik-Ea to Ela from the hamushtum-period of Liušum, in the month of Tinatum in the eponym year of Al-t,ab He will add interest according to the decree of the karum-authority. Witnessed by Shalim-Assur; witnessed by Puzur-Assur.