Cuneiform Tablet and Envelope: Old Assyrian Letter

Square-shaped clay tablet and envelope inscribed with text written in the Old Assyrian dialect of the Akkadian language. The tablet is whole and inscribed on both surfaces. The envelope is partially destroyed, but preserves multiple impressions of the same seal. The tablet and envelope probably come from the trading colony (karum) by the mound of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh) near Kaiseri in Cappadocia (central Anatolia), from the period karum-Kanesh level II (c. 1927-1836 B.C.E). The text is a letter (25 lines) between two copper traders, in which a certain Aššur-lamassi, from an unknown place in central Anatolia, informs a Šu-Belum in Kanesh that he is sending him silver as proceeds of his copper (7 talents, 30 minas), carried by an Iddi(n)-Su'en. Later on, silver for an additional 20 minas of copper will be added. The price for copper is 1 shekel of silver for 62 ½ shekels of copper. All the traders mentioned in this text are also noted in the archive of the well known copper trader Adad-S,ululi, son of Kuskusum/Šu-Anum, excavated in 1948 in the karum area of Kultepe (cf. J.G. Dercksen, The Old Assyrian Copper Trade in Anatolia. PIHANS 75. Leiden 1996, pp. 93-107). On the envelope, which is partially destroyed, the seal of the sender, Aššur-lamassi, is impressed eight times. Information provided by Thomas Sturm, August 2007.