Cuneiform 103 · Chapter 16

Eye, tooth, bone

Chapter 11 gave you the bone law in sound alone and made a promise: when the bone-word’s own signs arrive, these four lines will owe you nothing new. The signs arrive now — and then the stele does something the famous quotations never mention: it walks the same injuries down the social ladder, and flesh becomes silver.

Batch seventeen — and a veteran

Together, then: 𒄊GIR₃ · [eṣemtum] · the foot, the path; never voiced alone here — with PAD.DU it writes eṣemtum, "bone"𒉻PAD · [eṣemtum] · a morsel, a ration; the middle of the bone-compound GIR₃.PAD.RA₂𒁺DU · [ra] · the third sign of the bone-compound — three signs, one word, eṣemtum, “bone.” The scribes write it GIR₃.PAD.RA₂ and no one ever says those syllables; the reader speaks the Akkadian word whole, exactly as the River taught you — so that is what the reading below prints, in green: EṢEMTI, the voice, on the three signs that carry it.

The bone, paid

Every piece is old: ištebir is chapter 15’s perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain, išebbirū the plural durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it answering it, and the bone-word wears the suffix -šu you have carried since chapter 01. The promise is kept: the law owes you nothing.

Tooth for tooth

The next famous line — and one new word inside it, riding the breath-sign:

Item by item:

• šinni awīlim — “the tooth of a man”: šinnum, the tooth, in the construct — and spelled with chapter 03’s eye-sign-turned-sound, ši. A tooth written with an eye.
• meḫrišu — “his equal”: the word meḫrum is the hinge of the whole famous doctrine. Tooth for tooth holds BETWEEN EQUALS — the stele says so in one word, and almost no one quotes it.
• ittadi — “he has knocked out”: the charging-verb of chapter 05 (iddi), now in the perfectthe Akkadian verb shape for what HAS happened — a -ta- slipped in after the first root consonant: iptaras "he has decided", uḫtappid "he has blinded"; the laws use it for the newest deed in a chain — the root’s own n and the tense’s -t- pressed together into -tt-.
• šinnašu inaddû — “his tooth they shall knock out”: the court’s plural durativethe Akkadian verb shape for what happens or shall happen — inaddin, "he shall pay": the laws pronounce every sentence in it, the same verdict-voice as išebbirū above.

The scale of persons

Laws 196, 197 and 200 answer flesh with flesh. The three laws between and after them answer flesh with SILVER — because the victim stands lower on the ladder. Their signs include the commoner’s and the slave’s title-words, which this course leaves on the shelf, so hear them as sound — every verb already yours:

• Law 198 — šumma īn muškēnim uḫtappid ū lū eṣemti muškēnim ištebir — 1 mana kaspam išaqqal: “If he has blinded a COMMONER’s eye or broken a commoner’s bone — one minathe Mesopotamian pound: a weight of about 500 grams, divided into sixty shekels — silver by the mina was serious wealth of silver he shall weigh out.”
• Law 199 — šumma īn warad awīlim uḫtappid ū lū eṣemti warad awīlim ištebir — mišil šīmišu išaqqal: “If he has blinded a man’s SLAVE’s eye or broken his bone — half his price he shall weigh out.”
• Law 201 — šumma šinni muškēnim ittadi — šalušti mana kaspam išaqqal: “If he has knocked out a commoner’s tooth — a third of a minathe Mesopotamian pound: a weight of about 500 grams, divided into sixty shekels — silver by the mina was serious wealth he shall weigh out.”¹

Three ranks, three answers: the awīlum’s body is answered in kind; the muškēnum’s in fixed silver — a minathe Mesopotamian pound: a weight of about 500 grams, divided into sixty shekels — silver by the mina was serious wealth is sixty shekelsthe basic Mesopotamian weight, about 8 grams — one shekel of silver was roughly a hired worker's monthly wage, and by the shekelthe basic Mesopotamian weight, about 8 grams — one shekel of silver was roughly a hired worker's monthly wage’s own wage-math that is years of a worker’s pay; the slave’s in his market price, because the law sees property where it saw a person. And the verb of every verdict is išaqqal, “he shall WEIGH out”: there are no coins yet — silver is money by the scale, payment by the balance-pan.

Two, exactly

One last debt, the oldest on the books: chapter 02 promised that the duala grammatical number for exactly two, beyond singular and plural — Akkadian keeps it for natural pairs: īnān, "the two eyes" would come. Here it is, one row wide: for things that come in natural pairs, Akkadian keeps a number beyond singular and plural — īnān, “the two eyes”; šēpān, “the two feet.” By Hammurapi’s day it is already a survival, kept for pairs and little else — which is why the laws you just read write īn, the plain singular, even for an eye that has a twin. A number fading out of the language, caught here in its last natural home: the body.

Drill before you go on

1. Write 𒄊GIR₃ · [eṣemtum] · the foot, the path; never voiced alone here — with PAD.DU it writes eṣemtum, "bone", 𒉻PAD · [eṣemtum] · a morsel, a ration; the middle of the bone-compound GIR₃.PAD.RA₂, 𒄴AH · [ah/eh/uh] · a pure syllable — the throat's breath in three colors; me-eḫ-ri-šu, "his equal" from memory. For the first two say nothing alone — put 𒁺DU · [ra] · the third sign of the bone-compound after them and say eṣemtum; for 𒄴AH · [ah/eh/uh] · a pure syllable — the throat's breath in three colors; me-eḫ-ri-šu, "his equal" say aḫ, eḫ, uḫ.
2. Spell the bone-word in signs, from memory, and say what the reader says.
3. iddi — ittadi — inaddû: one root, three forms. Name each, in chapter 15’s melody.
4. Who pays what: the eye of an awīlum? the bone of a muškēnum? the tooth of an equal? Answer from the scale.
5. īnān — what number is that, and why do the laws still write īn?

Next: silver changes hands — a real loan from Sippar, witnesses, interest and all.