Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 August 2014
The three objects published in this article are the property of M. Jean Mariaud de Serres, to whom thanks are expressed for his willingness that they should be made available to scholarship. The one is an Old Babylonian private letter, measuring 61 × 45 mm, and is inscribed on both sides and three edges. It was sent by Ili-u-Šamaš, a man to judge from his name as known from other more explicit Old Babylonian contexts, to a lady, Šat-Emah. No other occurrences of this name have been noted by the present writer, though the type is a well known one. To judge from the mention of Sippar in lines 17–18 the sender seems to have lived there, or in the immediate vicinity. From the content of the letter it would seem that the addressee lived not too far from Sippar. She was certainly a land owner, and the sender was either the same or was involved in agricultural operations as a financier. After the address, the letter consists of a string of items continuing previous communications which cannot be elaborated from study of this letter alone. In view of the mention of Sippar one may wonder if the lady was a nadītum-priestess, since at this time they might own land. To judge from script and orthography, this letter is perhaps to be dated to the reign of Hammurabi or Samsu-iluna, but such an estimate can be only approximate. (For copy, see Fig. 1).
1 See Harris, R., JESHO 6 (1963), 151–2Google Scholar.
2 Professor F. R. Kraus kindly read the MS and made valuable suggestions from his unique knowledge of this genre. The tablet has every line ruled, but to avoid cluttering the copy they have been omitted.
3 To be published in due course by Lamberg-Karlovsky. The general result was announced by him in his British Academy lecture in 1974.
4 “Powder Diffraction Data for Minerals”, Berry, L. G., Ed., American Society for Testing Materials, 1974Google Scholar.
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