This volume presents a selection of 216 Old Babylonian letters as a first installment of the Schøyen Collection’s holdings of these documents. To these have been added five letters now in another private collection, making 221 in total. The letters are edited in transliteration and translation; the cuneiform is presented mostly in the form of photographs.
The letters fall into five groups:
(a) Nos. 1–32. Early Old Babylonian letters from the correspondence of Sumu-El and his officials, supplemented by a similar letter from Nūr-Adad, Sumu-El’s successor.
(b) Nos. 33–89. Other early Old Babylonian letters, all lacking greetings formula, on assorted administrative, business and private topics.
(c) Nos. 90–219. Letters of the middle Old Babylonian period, among them many that are written in the distinctive script associated with the state of Larsa in the era of Rīm-Sîn.
(d) No. 220. A letter with an extended greetings formula characteristic of the late Old Babylonian period.
(e) No. 221. A letter with the physical characteristics and distinctive script of a document from the period of the first Sealand dynasty, no doubt part of the archive published by S. Dalley in CUSAS 9 (2009).
