Basic Metadata
- NaBuCCo ID
- 3903
- Museum No.
- YBC 03558
- Primary Publication
- YOS 3 017
- CDLI P-Identifier
- P304989
- Place of issue
- No place
- Places mentioned on Tablet
- Bīt-Dababa
- Uruk city
- Archive
- Eanna temple
- Period
- None
- Babylonian Date (year-month-day):
- XXX. yy-mm-dd
- Inferred date
- Camb 2 = 528-527 BCE (Tolini 2011, Kleber 2012)
Digeanna
- Van Driel Files
- 11 a
- Text Form
- Letter (e.g. ṭuppi PN ana PN)
- Second-order accounting
- True
- Format of the tablet
- portrait
Navico
Content
- Paraphrase
Letter of Nabû-aḫu-iddin (NAI) (Royal Overseer, ša rēš šarri bēl piqitti) to the High Priest (šatammu, Nabû-mukīn-apli/Nādin//Dābibī), "his brother", in the context of construction work. NAI sent several men (chiefs of the plow, rab epinni), Šulāya (/Sîn-nādin-šumi), Nādinu (/Innin-zēru-ibni), Naˀid-Ištar (/Arad-Innin), Mukkēa (/Innin-zēru-ušabši) and Šadûnu /Libluṭ), to the High Priest to have their accounts balanced, to pay any pertaining arrears and to be sent back to work to NAI quickly (kapdu) to keep the morale of their workers up. NAI informs the High Priest (šatammu) that he changed silver from a remainder (rēḫu) from Eṭellu/Zēria, a plowman (ikkaru), into a debt in exchange for digging work on the canal of (tp)Bīt-Dababa. NAI also informs the High Priest that the accounts of Ina-ṣilli-Nanaya (/Innin-šumu-uṣur) and Aqria (/Nabu-dalā) (both chief of the plow, rab epinni) have been balanced. They are working at NAI’s site, but their remainder (of debt) is small. Despite having nothing to eat and being angry about it, Sukkāya, a ploughman (ikkaru), is doing his work with his men, whereas Nanaya-ēreš (chief of the plough, rab epinni) has only four men ready for work. Should NAI not receive [men], he is going to take alternative measures (broken). He seems to suggest that the High Priest (šatammu) sends someone as his replacement, who will come without delay (nubattu lā bâtu). NAI requests a scribe to hand out wool and silver to his 200 hired laborers as there is neither a scribe nor an Aramaic scribe (sēpiru) with him, and stresses that he requires a temple clerk to correctly hand out the goods, following protocol. He also complains about the costs for this hired workforce. NAI uses intensive rhetoric to support his requests, i.a., drawing a hypothetical picture of a reversal of their roles, where NAI would immediately send the High Priest (šatammu) everything he needed. With regard to his digging work, NAI complains that while he spent 3 days in Uruk, a full month’s work was ruined. He requests as many temple serfs as are listed in the writing boards (lē’u) of the temple, as well as hired workers the freemen (mār banî) in the list should provide, workers from the cattle shed of Eanna and from the royal cattle who are in the list as well as a lot of silver. NAI is anxious that the Governor (bēl pīḫāti) will finish his section while NAI himself lags behind. In closing, NAI states that [as soon as] the High Priest (šatammu) has assigned the plowmen, NAI will inspect them and they should bring their conscripted workers (perru) with them.
- Legacy Paraphrase
Letter.
Concerning the organisation of public work by several heads of ploughing teams.
Letter of A (who can be identified as the ša rēš šarri bēl piqitti of Eanna) to the temple administrator (šatammu) of Eanna. The letter deals with various matters concerning public works in which the Eanna temple is involved. Eleven men, B1–11, all known from other texts as chiefs of ploughmen (rab epinni, the term is not used in this text) are mentioned in relation with the organisation of the work and the provisioning of the workers.
Additional keywords: settlement of accounts (nikkassu epēšu), canal digging in Bīt-Dabābi, ploughman (ikkaru), silver, wool, alphabetic scribe (sepīru), (wooden) writing boards (le’û), temple-serfs (širku), hired labourers (agru), freemen (mār banê), king,
The letter is a near duplicate to TCL 09, 129 written by the same writer to the temple scribe.
A= Nabû-ahu-iddin (who can be identified as the ša rēš šarri bēl piqitti of Eanna);
B1= Sukkāya(/Nanāya-ēreš); B2= Agria (/Nabû-dalā); B3= Mukkēa (/Innin-zēru-šubši); B4= Nāˀid-Ištar (/Arad-Innin); B5= Nanāya-ēreš (/Mukkēa); B6= Šadûnu (/Libluṭ); B7= Etellu/Zēria); B8= Šulāya (/Sîn-nādin-šumi); B9= Nādin (/Innin-zēru-ibni); B10= Ina-ṣilli-Nanāya (/Innin-šumu-uṣur); B11= Kudurrānu (/Libluṭ)
Further Information
- Type and Content
- Correspondence
- last updated by
- Martina Schmidl, May 26, 2026, 2:33 p.m.
- Imported (Person, Date)
- Yuval Levavi, Kathleen Abraham (10/09/2023)
- Mentioned in the following publication(s)
- Cocquerillat 1968
- Hackl 2007
- Janković 2013 (unpubl. PhD diss.)
- Kleber 2012
- Ragen 2006
- Schmidl 2019 (unpublished PhD diss.)
- Schmidl 2023
- Tolini 2011 (PhD Diss.)
- YOS 3