Initially, tablets were only used to transmit to the swearer the exact text of the commitment that another king wished him to make, during an alliance concluded at a distance. Even in private law, it is well known that marriage, for example, bound a husband and wife, whether or not the contract was in writing (the latter being the more common case). Covenants bound two kings - and the people bound to them - for life.
From the middle of the 2nd millennium onwards, writing became somewhat sacralized, as shown by a diplomatic analysis of the external characteristics of treaties from this period, starting with the medium: whereas previously we had only dealt with clay tablets, we now come across tablets made from more precious materials. Such is the case of the bronze tablet discovered at Hattuša, on which Tudhaliya IV's treaty with Kurunta of Tarhuntassa was engraved. We also know that the treaty between Hattusili III and Ramses II was engraved in silver, although only copies are known. Finally, a treaty from the Neo-Assyrian period has been found engraved on a stone tablet. At first, tablets were merely a means of communication, enabling word-for-word verification of the oath taken: the important thing then was oral communication. Later, the treaty had to be preserved, and eventually recopied on media more noble than clay, because the written text had acquired a value in its own right.
There were no validation marks until the 14th century. Tablets were then imprinted with seals: those of the kings who signed them, or those of "national deities": those of the solar goddess Arinna and the god of Storm among the Hittites, and those of the god Aššur in Neo-Assyrian times.
