guy Posted April 1 Report Share Posted April 1 (edited) Two previously unread Assyrian texts were finally deciphered. The tablets documented homicide-related restitution (described as “blood money.”) A high resolution CT scan was used to help read one of the damaged tablets with faint surface inscriptions. (Above is a similar tablet to the ones examined.) These tablets were written by Assyrian merchants living in the trading colony (karum) at Kültepe/Kaneš in central Anatolia, roughly 1950-1750 BCE. These tablets come from the same massive archive-over 23,000 documents-created by Assyrian merchant families who recorded business, legal, and personal matters in cuneiform. Blood money (Akkadian: dāmum) was a formal, legally regulated compensation payment owed when a person-especially a merchant—was killed during commercial activity. It was not a bribe, not a private settlement, and not a clan-based vendetta payment. It was a state-enforced obligation between political authorities. If an Assyrian merchant was killed in an Anatolian city-state, the local ruler of that city was legally responsible for: investigating the killing identifying the perpetrator and paying compensation to the Assyrian merchant community if the killer could not be found If a local Anatolian was killed by an Assyrian, the Assyrian authorities were likewise obligated to pay compensation. This shows a reciprocal, diplomatic legal system between Assyria and the Anatolian kin https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/archaeology/a70835167/blood-money-tablets/ Edited April 1 by guy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.