A Neo-Assyrian Court Decision Based on the River Ordeal and a Slave Sale Contract from Marqasi (Kahramanmaraş)

Abstract

This paper provides a first edition of two Neo-Assyrian tablets from the seventh century BCE housed in the Kahramanmaraş Archaeological Museum. The tablets belong to the archive obtained from illegal excavations in Kahramanmaraş, ancient Marqasi, which was annexed to the Assyrian empire in 711 BCE. Marqasu 47 is a court record from the post-canonical period (eponym of Iqbi-ilāni) involving a river ordeal. It is noteworthy for its content and its unusual formulation, and it is almost entirely preserved. Marqasu 48 is a slave sale document, the most common type encountered in the archive, dated to the eponym of Manzarne, governor of Kullania. Although intact, only the dating section on the reverse remains fully legible. The texts add new personal names and reveal the identity of a hitherto unknown governor of Marqasi.