Letters in the British Museum

Abstract

This book is the thirteenth volume in the series Altbabylonische Briefe in Umschrift und Ubersetzung, which wants to make the many - often dispersed - letters from the Old Babylonian period available in transliteration and translation. Volume 13 is the second in a short series of hitherto unpublished material in the British Museum. One more volume is planned. The letters presented in this volume come from various collections and form different groups. The most important of these groups contains 45 letters dealing with the administration in Larsa at the time of king Hammurabi. A large portion of these letters was sent by Hammurabi himself. Of the other groups of letters two are of special interest. The first one consists of just four letters which give a vivid picture of the problems around the building of a house at Sippar. The second contains letters sent either to or from the city of Kish. The senders are partly known from other texts, specifically the ones published in volume 10. Orientalists and specialists in Assyriology as well as historians will benefit from this publication.