The Code of Hammurabi 10
chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent, his
contract tablet of sale shall be broken (declared
invalid) and he loses his money. The field, garden,
and house return to their owners.
38.A chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent can
not assign his tenure of field, house, and garden to
his wife or daughter, nor can he assign it for a
debt.
39.He may, however, assign a field, garden, or house
which he has bought, and holds as property, to his
wife or daughter or give it for debt.
40.He may sell field, garden, and house to a merchant
(royal agents) or to any other public official, the
buyer holding field, house, and garden for its
usufruct.
41.If any one fence in the field, garden, and house of
a chieftain, man, or one subject to quit-rent,
furnishing the palings therefor; if the chieftain,
man, or one subject to quit-rent return to field,
garden, and house, the palings which were given
to him become his property.
42.If any one take over a field to till it, and obtain no
harvest therefrom, it must be proved that he did no
work on the field, and he must deliver grain, just
as his neighbor raised, to the owner of the field.
43.If he do not till the field, but let it lie fallow, he
shall give grain like his neighbor's to the owner of
the field, and the field which he let lie fallow he
must plow and sow and return to its owner.
44.If any one take over a waste-lying field to make it
arable, but is lazy, and does not make it arable, he
shall plow the fallow field in the fourth year,
harrow it and till it, and give it back to its owner,
and for each ten gan (a measure of area) ten gur of