GUARANTORS OF FISH CONTRACT 361 
‘‘ MAKIMNI-ANNI THE SON OF BEL-AB-USUR, BI’-ILIYA THE 
SON OF... & IsHiya, NATIN THE SON OF TABSHALAM, AND 
ZADABYAMA THE SON OF KHINNI-BEL, OF THEIR OWN FREE 
WILL SPOKE AS FOLLOWS TO RIBAT, THE SON OF BEL-ERIBA, 
THE SERVANT OF RIMUT-NINURTA: ‘GIVE FIVE NETS AND WE 
WILL DELIVER TO YOU FIVE HUNDRED FISH OF GOOD QUALITY 
(TUKKUNU) BY THE I5TH DAY OF THE MONTH TISHRI IN THE 5TH 
YEAR!’ THEN RIBAT HEARKENED UNTO THEM AND GAVE 
THEM FIVE NETS.!. ON THE I5TH OF TISRI THEY SHALL DELIVER 
THE FIVE HUNDRED FISH OF GOOD QUALITY. IF THEY DO NOT 
DELIVER THE FIVE HUNDRED FISH OF GOOD QUALITY ON THE 
APPOINTED DAY FOR THEIR DELIVERY, THEN ON THE 20TH 
DAY OF TISHRI SHALL THEY DELIVER A THOUSAND FISH. EACH 
ONE GOES BAIL FOR THE OTHER IN RESPECT OF MAKING UP 
THE NUMBER OF THE FISH. FOR THE FIVE HUNDRED FISH, 
BEL-IBNI, THE SON OF APLA, ALSO GOES BAIL.” 
The parties to the contract are Ribat, the steward of the 
rich Babylonian banker Rimut-Ninurta, and five Aramaic 
fishermen. In consideration of Ribat’s furnishing five nets, 
they bind themselves to deliver by the 15th of Tishri (about 
September), z.e. within twenty days from the making of the 
contract, five hundred fish. On failure to do so, the time is 
extended by five days, but the number of the fish is then 
increased to one thousand. Each of the five fishermen “ goes 
bail” for delivery of five hundred, or if need be, of a thousand 
fish, but an outsider, Bel-ibni, son of Apla, cautiously limits 
his bail or guarantee to the first figure. 
These documents possess many points of interest. 
(A) They are not only the very earliest, but I suggest 
the only extant jishing contracts (proper) ‘prior to the third 
century A.D. In Egypt, during the Ptolemaic period, fishermen, 
for salt used for fish supplied by a grocer, sealed by the official controller, 
Cf. M. Shorr, Urkunden des Altbabylonischen Civil und Processrechts, No. 2 56. 
1In the Neo-Babylonian period the word, which makes its first 
appearance in this contract, employed for nef appears to have been salitu 
or Jitu. The word is written sa-li-tum, and the first syllable (sa) may be 
either part of the word, or else the determinative viksu, which is written before 
things made of cordage. Ifthe word be read salitu, it may perhaps be derived 
from the root, salu, to immerse. The rendering of the word as net is not quite 
certain, but, as will be seen from the translation of the text, the context 
points to this meaning. It is clearly some sort of tackle used by fishermen, 
and the most obvious meaning would be net. 
