Making Tablets or Taking Tablets?ṭuppa/u ṣabātuin Assyria

Abstract

Middle Assyrian texts have a phraseṭuppa ṣab¯atu, which is usually understood to mean “to take (possession of) a tablet”. There is a corresponding type of tablet called aṭuppu ṣabittu(plural (ṭuppatu ṣabbutātu). This article contends thatṭuppa ṣabātuis a technical term for drawing up a formal document, and thatṭuppu ṣabittuis a “formally drawn-up tablet”, normally if not invariably involving at least one seal impression, used both in private commercial contexts and in public administration. It is further maintained that this usage survives into Neo-Assyrian times, when its most frequent (but not exclusive) usage is at the end of a legal document where a witness (often identified as a scribe) is described asṣābit ṭuppi: this has been understood to mean that this scribe retained possession of the document, or that a third party “kept” the document. In the light of the fresh Middle Assyrian evidence, it is preferable to see it as referring to the scribe “who drew up the document”.