Old Babylonian Clay Cuneiform Tablet with A Letter Possibly Sent to the King of Ešnunna by an Allied King

LATE 18TH CENTURY B.C.

4 1/4 in. (207 grams, 10.8 cm).

Displaying the contents of a letter over both principal faces and side edges, reading:
1-2) Say to [...], thus says [...].
3) About the people who perjured themselves against Sîn and Šamaš,
4) I keep writing to you. You didn't send them to me.
5) The money I find myself constantly looking for is not yours!
6) Isn't it the money of the god of your city and aren't you going to get yourself killed?
7) This money belongs to Sîn and Šamaš.
8-9) Pirhi-Amurru, who took (to marry) the daughter of the leader of the troop,
9-10) had no right since his father, his father's father to kidnap a foreign servant. Now he must give her back in his own hands ten talents of silver and two talents of gold [...].
12-13) Why did an army of 10,000 soldiers [who] sit before you] not give [to ... but]
14) give the daughter of the chief of the soldiers to Pirhi-Amurru?
15) Now I have just dispatched my messengers to you.
16-17) To Šamaš-tayyar their chief give the daughter of the chief of the soldiers!
18) In addition, let me take Siriša (?) with her.
19-20) I want to see (from you) in these things a complete commitment. [...]

22) Imgur-[... NP...],
23) Ibbi-ilabrat, [NP],
24) Ṣilli-bitum, Gimil-Ak[kadu (?)... and NP],
22-25) send me these people.
26) Why have the citizens of Emut-bal (?)
27-28) who reside before you, taken the lead...? And ...
29-30) Babylon ... sent you a written warning concerning you thus: 'the troops ...'
32) 20 troops of mine [...].
33) You brought oxes and sheep.
34-35) The fact that I (who am) your ally ... keep writing to you
concerning ... and Pirhum...but you did not have me (them) drive. (Lacunar).
1') I keep hearing about... the treasure of Sîn and Šamaš.
2') My messages to you...
3')Write to me (if there is) a difficulty
4'5') so that I may write for the treasure to be loaded (on a boat). [...].

Provenance

Specialised collection of cuneiform texts, the property of a London gentleman and housed in London before 1992.
Thence by descent to family members.
Examined by Professor Wilfrid George Lambert FBA (1926-2011), historian, archaeologist, and specialist in Assyriology and Near Eastern archaeology, in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
The collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples.

CONDITION

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LOT 0231