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STATE ARCHIVES OF ASSYRIA XIX
unearthed in Nineveh, as these abound with flakes and other small pieces
having a K-number. 262 ) Be that as it may, we should not forget that he may
have been busy putting small pieces together as many tablets result from
being rejoined from two or several pieces. 263 In addition, the condition of the
letters is of course related to and dependent on the find context.
Texts Included and Excluded
Altogether 244/3 separate documents or fragments thereof were published
or discussed by Saggs in CTN 5. These included 109 previously unpublished
Neo-Assyrian and 23 Neo-Babylonian 264 letters or letter fragments plus 105
letters or letter fragments which Saggs had previously edited in the journal
Iraq during 1955-1974. These contained 99, or actually 98 (cf. SAA 15 83 in
the list of recent joins, below), Neo-Assyrian and 6 Neo-Babylonian 265 letters.
However, 244 is not the correct number of letters in the corpus. The number
can be slightly reduced and the number of letters published in this volume is
229. That the number of letters is lower than 244 is determined by a number
of joins and documents other than letters which are not included in the present
volume.
Joins. Since the publication of CTN 5, it has been possible to join 4 pieces
to one another or at least to confirm that this should indeed be done. For
example, the small fragment ND 2747 in the British Museum certainly joins
a bigger piece ND 2481 in Baghdad that forms the main part of a report on
work allotments concerning the making of the bricks (no. 52). It is somewhat
surprising that ND 2648 + ND 2658 (no. 39), about grain taxes by Šarru-emuranni,
deputy governor of Isana, were not rejoined earlier (even though the
ND numbers of the two pieces are close to one another) as they form a fine,
physical join. Note, however, that no. 39 may not be sent from the west but
from the central Assyria as the location of the province of Isana is disputed. 266
Further, because of Šep-Aššur, who was also governor of Dur-Šarruken,
without more explicit evidence a date in Sargon’s reign may be as plausible
as that of Tiglath-pileser’s. Most of an important NB letter, no. 147, reporting
on the unrest in Dilbat probably during the Mukin-zeri rebellion, can now be
made up from two separate pieces; however, both pieces are in Baghdad. No.
206 (ND 2724 + ND 2756) adds a previously unknown sender to the corpus,
Qizalayu or Q/Kinzalayu, whose letter is so badly broken that Saggs did not
edit the lower part (ND 2756) of this tablet in his volume. Also, already earlier
on, Simo Parpola published two separate pieces as SAA 15 83 (= ND 2359
(+) ND 2777); these pieces do not physically join but only about one line,
that has been broken away, separates them from one another.
Non-letters and previously unpublished letters. CTN 5 also included 8
documents (or fragments) that are not letters:
• ND 2415 (CTN 5 pl. 1, p. 172f) is a list of towns
• ND 2428 (CTN 5 pl. 37, p. 260f) is an administrative document or a memorandum
• ND 2479 (CTN 5 no copy, cf. p. 320) is a horizontal tablet, presumably an
administrative document
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