The following text is inscribed on an entitlement monument from southern Mesopotamia and documents social and economic entanglements between two families over the course of several generations during the tenth century B.C.E. The monument was excavated by British archaeologists in the city of Sippar in the temple of Shamash, god of the sun and justice, around 1900. Today it is on display in the British Museum.

In the second year of king Ninurta-kudurri-usur (circa 986 B.C.E.), Arad-Sebitti, son of Atrattash, struck and killed with an arrow a [female sl]ave of Burusha, the jeweler, whom Bel-ilani-nasirshu had taken as wife.

Burusha, the jeweler, and Arad-Sebitti, son of Atrattash, pleaded the case before king Ninurta-kudurri-usur, and Ninurta-kudurri-usur said as follows to Arad-Sebitti: "Go and give seven persons to Burusha."

Arad-Sebitti did not have the persons to give, and...