This tablet has a total of 37 lines on obverse,
lower edge and reverse. There is a little
damage
to the two right-hand corners, and a few
spots
of
surface damage elsewhere, but the greater
part
of the script is well preserved and clear. The
letter dates to c. 1900-1700 B.C. and comes
from a man Shamash-nasir who is writing to
“my lord”. This lord was either the
king
or a high official in view the report on the
state
of the area which is sent, and in view of the
authority which this lord had no matter of
substance.
Translation:
Speak to my lord, “Thus says Shamash-
nasir
your servant: ‘The land and the district is
secure.
Cutting has taken place for the harvest of the
palace: there has been no laziness. About
the
linseed field of Munanum and Lirbi-sumu on
the
Harirtum canal, which they have controlled
and
planted with linseed, about which my lord
wrote
to me. When I heard the tablet of my lord, I
summoned the military officers. They
assembled
and in their assembly they heard the tablet of
my
lord, and the farmers gave the order from it
and
confirmed it, that Lirbi-sumu had control and
had planted that field … Mashum, my lord’s
servant …, and when that linseed had been
planted, Munanum … the tablet of Awi[l-…]
in
the coach house, and they imposed the
penalty.
Many people spoke their witness before
Mashum,
my lord’s servant. I sent scribes to measure
that
field, and there were 8 iku of field
watered by the Harirtum canal, and 10
iku watered by the Kabliya canal.
10 iku of field which Lirbi-sumu
planted, and 2.50 iku of field which
Rish-Shamash planted, I held back for the
palace. Now, Munanum, Lirbi-sumu and the
farmers who are in control and planted that
linseed I have entrusted to the control of
Mashum [and] I have sent (them) to my lord.
An iku was a measure of area of
land,
about 353 square meters. The two canals
named
seem not to be known elsewhere so far.
Description and translation kindly provided
by
Professor W. G. Lambert
