The single contribution of Sargon to the land grant corpus (no. 19) stands outside the normal development of the genre. It is a temple grant, but it arose from a special circumstance connected with the construction of Sargon's new capital of Dur-Šarruken. Some of the land needed for the site had been deeded by grant by Adad-nerari III to provide offerings for Assur, and Sargon tells how "in order that the command of a previous king not be altered" he deeded to the descendants of the original grantees "field for field" in another location and charged them to continue to provide the offerings to Assur. The historical preamble to the text is condensed from a cylinder inscription of Sargon that details the background of the construction of Dur-Šarruken,[[28]] and the text makes liberal use of literary Babylonian although Assyrian forms also occur. It is quite likely that this tablet is not the actual grant itself which Sargon says he sealed with his royal seal and gave to the grantees. The tablet is dated, however, as are actual grant tablets.
28 Lyon Sargon, pp. 6-9 and 34-36.
Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting
Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting, 'Sargon II', Grants, Decres and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period, SAA 12. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1995; online contents: SAAo/SAA12 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa12/grantsoflandandtaxexemption/sargonii/]