The foregoing paragraphs point out some of the problems affecting the selection and organization of the texts for this volume and how other text genres can cause confusion. But, the decisions having been made, for better or for worse, it remains to show how the texts in this volume adhere to a central idea, the transfer of property as a gift either to an individual or a temple. This will be done by treating the texts in the three main divisions outlined at the beginning: land grants, edicts and decrees, and (votive) gifts.
The second group of texts (decrees for temple maintenance) differs from the others in that these texts do not convey the gifts (or rather, offerings) themselves, but specify what they are and who is to give them and when. The intent, however is the same as in the temple land grants and votive gifts: to provide ongoing sustenance for the temples and their personnel. The royal appointments presented with the second group of texts are also a special category. Here the "gift" is not property, but authority, perhaps the greatest gift an absolute monarch had to give, but there is no doubt that these texts belong with those recording the other gifts that the Assyrian king bestows.
The final group of texts are outright gifts and with the exception of no. 88, a unique gift text, have been limited to donations of land or persons to temples. These are the same categories of property as are represented in the purchase contracts found among the legal texts in the royal archives.
Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting
Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting, 'Summary', 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/introduction/summary/]