XVI. Rights Of Inheritance
The division of an inheritance
The division of property among the children invariably followed the death of the father. We have a very large number of contracts bearing on this custom. The contract sets forth the particulars of the division and includes a sworn declaration on the part of the recipients to make no further claim. There were certain reservations to be made in the case of minors, for whom a portion had to be set aside to provide for their making the proper gifts to the parents of their brides on marriage.
Usage as illustrated by the contracts
The Code deals at length with the laws of inheritance, which are best treated under the head of marriage. The actual examples occurring in the documents of the period serve to illustrate the practical working of these laws, but hardly add to our knowledge. They are usually occupied with the division of property among brothers. Sometimes we have some light on the reservations made in favor of other members of the family. Thus two brothers divide the property of their “father's house” and of their sister, a votary. The sister did not take her property, but the brothers were trustees for her enjoyment of it during her life, when it reverted to them in full.[397] The document merely states the amount of one brother's share and the other's agreement to be content with the division. In another case, where four brothers share the property of their [pg 162] “father's house,” no details of their shares are given, but only their agreement to abide by the division made.[398] In another case the eldest brother allots to each of two younger brothers a share and takes a woman slave and her children as his portion. He is said to do this of his “own power,” ina emur ḳamanišu, and to have given them this of his “own graciousness,” ina tûbâtišu. The brothers swear to make no further claim on the “grant,” maršîtu, of their father. Either the property to which they were legally entitled had already been allotted them, or possibly they had no legal claim on any. The eldest brother is a high official, a pa-pa, and perhaps had succeeded his father in office. The father's property would then be the endowment of his office, a grant from the king, and as such inalienable from the office to which the eldest son had succeeded. The three slaves may have thus been all the private property of the father which was available for division. But the context seems to suggest that what the brothers received was a concession from the eldest brother on which they had no claim. He may in consideration of his succeeding to his father's appointment have made this concession to his brothers as a consolation.[399] In another case a mother gives certain sums to her three sons. She had still left two sons and two daughters, and the first three agree to make no claim on all that she and these four children have or shall acquire.[400] It is noteworthy that one of the three receives ten shekels as the terḫatu of the wife he shall marry. He was evidently not of marriageable age, or, at any rate, still unmarried. In such a case the Code directed that on partition of the father's property, a special sum should be laid aside for this necessary present to the bride's father.[401] So we find two brothers giving a sister a share consisting of one-third SAR of a house, next her brother's, one maid, a bed and a [pg 163] chair, with the promise that on the day that she marries and enters her husband's house she shall receive further two-thirds GAN of land and slaves.[402] The list of property is often given, especially where brothers give shares to their sisters. Sometimes the relationship is less close. Thus a man shares with two sons of his father's brother, i.e., with two cousins, ten SAR of unreclaimed land, taking three and a half SAR as his share.[403] Sometimes the property included the mother's marriage-portion. Thus three brothers divide their property and two of them, as her sons, share their mother's marriage-portion:[404]
Division of property between three brothers
One SAR of built land and granary, next the house of Ubarrîa and next that of Bushum-Sin, two exits to the street, the property of Urra-nâṣir, which he divided with Sin-ikisham and Ibni-Shamash. From mouth (?) to gold the share is complete. Brother shall not dispute with brother. By Shamash, Malkat, Marduk, and Sin-mubaliṭ they swore. Nine witnesses. Thirteenth year of Sin-mubaliṭ.[405]
The property which fell to Urra-nâṣir was a house occupying one SAR of land. The text means not that the three men, Urra-nâṣir, Sin-ikisham, and Ibni-Shamash, divided the house among them, but that at the division this house was the share of the first named. What the two, Sin-ikisham and Ibni-Shamash, had as their share we are not here told. But the three agreed not to call in question the division of property, which probably came to them from their father or mother. Fortunately we know in this case what the others got. Thus we find:
One SAR of built land, (and) granary, next the house of Ibni-Shamash and next the street, its exit to the street, the property of Sin-ikisham, which he divided with Ibni-Shamash and Urra-nâṣir. From mouth (?) to gold the share is complete. Brother shall not dispute with brother. By Shamash, Malkat, and Sin-mubaliṭ they swore. Nine witnesses. Thirteenth year of Sin-mubaliṭ.[406]
And again: