CHAPTER XXXII 



THE EARLIEST RECORDED CONTRACT OF FISHING 



One of the very earliest — ^the earliest as far as I have found — 

 recorded contract concerning fishing occurs in the second 

 year of Darius II., 422 B.C. It runs thus 1 : — 



" RiBAT SON OF BeL-ErIBA THE SLAVE OF EnLIL-NADIN- 

 SHUMI SPOKE OF HIS OWN FREE WILL TO EnLIL-NADIN-SHUMI 

 SON OF MURASHU IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER : ' ThE FISH- 

 POND BETWEEN THE VILLAGE AhSHANU AND THE FARM OF 

 BEL-ABU-UZUR IN THE FIELD OF THE MASTER OF THE MERCHANTS 

 AND THE FISHPOND IN THE FIELD OF THE PREFECT AND THE 

 FISHPOND BY THE VILLAGE OF BIT-NATUN-El, GIVE ME FOR 

 YEARLY PAYMENT. EACH YEAR I WILL GIVE ONE HALF TALENT 

 OF PURE SILVER, AND FROM THE DAY ON WHICH THE FISHPONDS 

 ARE GIVEN TO ME FOR FISHING, DAILY WILL I SUPPLY FISH FOR 

 THY TABLE.' AnD THEN EnLIL-NADIN-SHUMI HEARD HIM, 



and he gave him fishponds for a yearly tribute of half 

 a talent of silver. 



"Signed in the presence of two judges, before six 

 witnesses, and a scribe." 



The Tablet is impressed with five seals. 2 



The next recorded fishing contract deals with netting in 

 Babylonian waters. It is dated the 25th day of Elul in the 

 fifth year of Darius II., or 419 B.C. B. Meissner's translation 

 of the document may be rendered as follows ^ : — 



* A. Ungnad, Hundert Ausgewdhlte Rechtsurkunden, No. 56. 



2 Two contracts (in 5th year of Darius II.) contain provisions that in 

 case " of any fish being Ufted," i.e. stolen, the keeper has to pay a fine of 

 10 shekels, and in second case to compensate owner. Revue d'Assyriologie, 

 vol. IV.. pp. 182-183, by V. Scheil. 



8 Orientalistiche Liter aturzeitung (Berlin, 1914), p. 482. This was pubhshed 

 by Clay in Publications of the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania, 

 vol. II., Part 1., No. 208. We find a receipt in the XXth century B.C. 



300 



