(M408) 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 “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
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
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