DEAPS
Digital Editions of Aramaic and Phoenician Sources

Correction Request

Please include the line and word for the correction

CBS 05503

Land Lease

BE 10, 099 P261696 Clay 29

Metadata

Language
Aramaic
Script
Aramaic
Material
clay tablet
Updated by
James D. Moore, 2026-06-28

Clay, Albert T. “Aramaic Indorsements on the Documents of the Murašû Sons.” In Old Testament and Semitic Studies in Memory of William Rainey Harper, edited by Robert Francis Harper, Francis Brown, and George Foot Moore, 1:287-321. Chicago, IL.: University of Chicago Press, 1908. https://archive.org/details/oldtestamentsemi01harp/page/286.
References: no. 29.
Clay, Albert T. Business Documents of Murašû Sons of Nippur Dated to the Reign of Darius II. (424–404 B.C.). The Babylonian Expedition of the University of Pennsylvania. Series A: Cuneiform Texts 10. Philadelphia: MacCalla and Co., 1904.
References: p. 27.
Textual Notes
Clay (1904, 27) first proposed that seah here means “rent,” a definition he continued to use in 1908. This misinterpretation stems from a misunderstanding of the meaning and function of Aramaic epigraphs. There were possibly multiple copies of this text—some perhaps held by other accountants or administrators involved in mediating the transaction. In any case, the various commodities listed in the rental agreement include silver, sheep, a jar, and 60 qa of flour. The seah notation simply informs future accountants consulting the agreement that the rent is convertible to a weight measure, likely based on a barley standard, and that the appropriate storehouse manager or accountant of dry goods would be responsible for mediating the annual transaction (Moore).

Text and Translation

Choose alternative texts and translations from the filter. Click individual words in a text for more details.

James Moore Last updated 07 April, 2026 by James D. Moore

side: Rev. Upside down line: Ar. 1
side: Rev. Upside down line: Ar. 2
side: Rev. Upside down line: Ar. 3

James Moore Last updated 07 April, 2026 by James D. Moore

Document of the lands of the carpenters which
Hîdûrî son of Ḥabṣir (1) gave (2) to Rîbat son of
Bêlēˀrib in (exchange rate of) Seah.
Moore, James D.. 'CBS 05503.' DEAPS. 05 May, 2026. https://deaps.osu.edu/text_objects/15305. Accessed: 29 Jun, 2026.