Fishing from the earliest times - Blog

— ——CHAPTER XXXIITHE EARLIEST RECORDED CONTRACT OF FISHINGOne of the very earliest—the earliest as far as I have foundrecorded contract concerning fishing occurs in the secondyear 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-SHUMISON OF MURASHU IN THE FOLLOWING MANNER : ThE FISH-'POND BETWEEN THE VILLAGE AhSHANU AND THE FARM OFBeL-ABU-UZUR IN THE FIELD OF THE MASTER OF THE MERCHANTSAND THE FISHPOND IN THE FIELD OF THE PREFECT AND THEFISHPOND BY THE VILLAGE OF BiT-NATUN-El, GIVE ME FORYEARLY PAYMENT. EaCH YEAR I WILL GIVE ONE HALF TALENTOF PURE SILVER, AND FROM THE DAY ON WHICH THE FISHPONDSARE GIVEN TO ME FOR FISHING, DAILY WILL I SUPPLY FISH FORTHY TABLE.' AnD THEN EnLIL-NADIN-SHUMI HEARD HIM,and he gave him fishponds for a yearly tribute of halfa talent of silver."Signed in the presence of two judges, before sixwitnesses, and a scribe."The Tablet is impressed with five seals. 2The next recorded fishing contract deals with netting inBabylonian waters. It is dated the 25th day of Elul in thefifth year of Darius II., or 419 B.C. B. Meissner's translationof the document may be rendered as follows ^ :1 A. Ungnad, Hundert Ausgewdhlte Rechtsurkunden, No. 56.2 Two contracts (in 5th year of Darius II.) contain provisions that incase " of any fish being Ufted," i.e. stolen, the keeper has to pay a fine of10 shekels, and in second case to compensate owner. Revue d'Assyriologie,vol. IV., pp. 182-183, by V. Scheil.' Orientalistiche Literaturzeitung (Berlin, 1914), p. 482. This was pubUshedby Clay in Publications of the Babylonian Section of the University of Pennsylvania',vol. li., Part I., No. 208. We find a receipt in the XXth century B.C.360