Cuneiform Tablet: Old Assyrian Legal Text

Originally square shaped pink clay tablet with cuneiform writing. The tablet is inscribed with ruled lines of text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. About 3/4 of the tablet is preserved with the upper right corner missing. Tablet is inscribed on both sides and upper, lower and left edges. There are no seal impressions. The tablet probably comes from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia). A key part of the beginning of the text is missing, but the text records at least two separate transactions. The first (lines 1-8) concerns the payment by the writer of the tablet ("I paid") for something [broken] entrusted by Ikupi-[...] to Ishar-beli, the gardener, followed by the name of a witness. The second records the writer of the tablet giving 4 minas of antimony to Ilabrat-[...]. The remaining lines are likely the witnesses to this transaction. IMAGE: Top row, middle tablet.