Artifact: Stone monument
Provenience: Susa, modern Shush
Period: Old Akkadian (ca. 2340-2200 BC)
Current location: Louvre Museum, Paris (Sb 20)
Text genre, language: Royal inscription; Akkadian
CDLI page

Description: The Manistusu obelisk is an inscribed four-sided obelisk made of black diorite. It was found during Jacques de Morgan's excavations at Susa, where it had been brought by the Elamite ruler Shutruk-Nahunte, together with many other iconic Mesopotamian objects. Its inscription deals with the acquisition of eight plots of land by Manistusu, the third (or after the Ur III version of the Sumerian King List second) king of the Sargonic dynasty. The fields are acquired from different sellers and amount to a total of approx. 9,700 iku (= approx. 3,400 ha) of land. All plots of land can be located within the land of Akkad. (Klaus Wagensonner, University of Oxford)

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Edition(s): Gelb, I.J., P. Steinkeller and R.M. Whiting, Jr. 1989. 1991. Earliest Land Tenure Systems in the Near East: Ancient Kudurrus. Oriental Institute Publications 104. Chicago: The Oriental Institute, 116ff, no. 40.