Details

LOT 0132

Old Babylonian Cuneiform Tablet, a Letter from Iluni King of Ešnunna to Warassa King of Dêr

EARLY 2ND MILLENNIUM B.C.

5 1/8 in. (319 grams, 13.2 cm).

A large pillow-shaped ceramic tablet of biconvex cross-section, columns of cuneiform text to both broad faces and two edges, a letter from Iluni king of Ešnunna to Warassa king of Dêr who reigned at the end of the 18th century B.C., the document is a duplicate preserved in Ešnunna as indicated by the mention of the name of the messengers in charge of transporting the document to Dêr and the date at the end, the message itself has 64 lines, Iluni begins with the usual greetings invoking Tišpak, the god of the city of Ešnunna: 'May the Sun god and Tišpak keep you in good health forever!', the continuation is less usual: 'I kissed the (consecrated) flour of Ištaran that you made me carry and as I prayed for my life, I prayed for your life, etc.', the relationship between Dêr and Ešnunna was thus excellent, Iluni addresses three different topics; initially, he justifies the delay which he took to send to Dêr a troop that Warassa requires of him: an Elamite embassy occurred in Ešnunna, Iluni underlines how much the interests of Dêr depend on those of his city; the second subject concerns a group of inhabitants of Dêr who were arrested at the border of Ešnunna, Iluni blames them for not going to greet him; lastly, Iluni tackles a question of international diplomacy which touches the relationship between Ešnunna, Dêr, Elam and 'the troop of the Sea' a reference to a new political force which was constituted in the south of Mesopotamia, it is in this context that Iluni announces that he wrote to the Elamite Kukannašur, better known as Kuknašur (II?), which makes it possible to establish a new synchronism between Mesopotamian history and that of Elam.

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.
This small collection is exceptional for the variety of types, including some very rare and well preserved examples.

Literature

Cf. Liverani, M., Antico Oriente, Storia, societa' ed economia, Roma, 1988, pp.608-609, fig.111, for type.

CONDITION