In 1400 BC, there was a political scandal in Mesopotamia — the Semitic Museum of Harvard University has cuneiform tablets showing a corruption and sex investigation. Unearthed in northern Iraq in the 1920s, they record a judicial panel’s impeachment proceedings against Mayor Kushshiharbe of Nuzi. Dogged by an aggressive prosecution, a political leader denies an illicit affair — ‘I did not have sex with her’, although one of his assistants swears to it. The Mayor was accused of taking bribes (one maid, one complete oxhide and wood for two yokes), and abducting people for ransom (two shekels of gold, one ox and two male sheep), and stealing. He even expropriated manure to fertilize his gardens — Mar-Ishtar, a farmer, said: ‘The manure for [one plot] of land the gardener of Kushshiharbe took away from me. So I said “Why did you take away my manure?”, and he said “As for you, the mayor has ordered you to be flogged”.’ The mayor was accused of committing adultery with a woman named Humerelli — he vehemently denied the charge, but one of his agents, Ziliptilla, said it was true: ‘We brought her to the place of Kushshiharbe,and he had sex with her’. The mayor said: ‘No! Emphatically no! Not a word of it is true, I did not have sex with her!’ A second man, Palteya, said: ‘I called to Humerelli and took her over to the brothel of Tilunnaya, and Kushshiharbe had sex with her.’ The mayor said ‘May I perish if Palteya did bring Humerelli over to the brothel of Tilunnaya that I might have sex with her.’ He was also accused of adorning his private home with a gate fashioned from 30–40 pieces of wood taken from the palace gate. The records of the final verdict in the case have never been found … (27)
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