YBC 03539

NaBuCCo ID: 7871
Museum No.: YBC 03539
Primary Publication: YOS 3 133
CDLI P-Identifier: P304970
Place of issue: No place
Regional setting: No place
Archive: Eanna temple
Period: Early Achaemenid
Babylonian Date (year-month-day):: XXX. yy-mm-dd
Inferred date: Nbn 17-Cyr 8, likely towards the last years of Cyr = 539-531 BCE, and likely closer to 531 BCE (based on prosopography)

Content

Paraphrase: Letter of Ištar-ālik-pāni (IAP, ša rēši, courtier and širku, oblate) to the High Priest (of Eanna, šatammu) and Nabû-aḫu-iddin (Royal Overseer, ša rēš šarri bēl piqitti), "his lords", answering a previous message about outposts. IAP clarifies that he is not in charge of outposts, but of work for the palace (likely in (tp)Abanu), wood (ḫuṣābu), brickmaking and work for the garden (pardēsu). He complains that his work is hard. He also refers to a previous exchange in which the recipients informed him that Iqišāya (/Nanaya-ēreš, herdsman, later chief of flocks, rab būli) (I) should not tarry (nubattu lā bâtu) where IAP is until the chief of outposts (rab kādāni) settles the accounts with all the workers for I and I then receives the (respective) warrantors (for the missing workers). IAP states that he did not know this, but that I made the workers show up for work. 25 of them will leave on the first of m.I because of a lack of wages. All the workers are hirelings and work for 3 shekels of silver (per month), but as IAP has nothing to pay them, he asks the recipients for silver. He also adds that all the workers are getting ready to leave, and that only 30 of the supposed 50 workers of Arad-Bēl (/Šarru-kīn) (rab būli, chief of herds) (AB) are available because the others have fled. IAP informs the recipients that he has already written to AB because of this.

Type and Content: Letters
created by: Martina Schmidl, May 13, 2026, 3:12 p.m.
last updated by: Martina Schmidl, May 26, 2026, 2:23 p.m.
Mentioned in the following publication(s): Ebeling 1930-1934 (NBrU); Jursa 2010; Jursa, Autour de Polyani (2005); Kleber 2008; Schmidl 2019 (unpublished PhD diss.); Tolini 2011 (PhD Diss.); WZKM 98 (2008), 81-94.