This volume completes the publication of the Assyrian letters attributable 10 the reign of Esarhaddon. SAA 10 (letters from scholars) and SAA 13 letters from priests) form the other parts of the correspondence of this king m Neo-Assyrian.[[1]] Here, as in SAA 10 and SAA 13, Esarhaddon's own correspondence is seamlessly connected with letters addressed to Assurbani- pal.[[2]] This fact reflects Assurbanipal' s pre-eminent position after he was nominated crown prince of Assyria in 672, more than three years before his own reign started.[[3]] There are also political letters addressed to both Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal in Neo-Babylonian; these will soon be published in the SAA series, and thus will not be discussed here.
Esarhaddon's reign is one of the best-documented reigns of the Neo-Assy- rian Empire. In addition to letters, other types of documents are abundantly preserved from his time: royal inscriptions,[[4]] chronicles,[[5]] treaties,[[6]] literary texts,[[7]] queries to the sun-god,[[8]] legal transactions,[[9]] administrative texts,[[10]] astrological reports,[[11]] prophecies, [[12]] and a land grant.[[13]]
Although the title "The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon" accentuates the nature of the letters edited in this volume, the word "political" should not be understood in the narrow sense, but rather broadly. While this book contains many royal letters of a political nature, it also includes some unofficial letters (cf. Chapter 6), and letters of a more private nature (e.g., no. 28).
The real political letters of the volume relate to the domestic affairs of Assyria, as well as to Assyria's foreign policy. These domestic affairs include, among others, complaints to the king and the crown prince about mistreatment and injustice at the hands of some high officials;[[14]] people appealing for workers and seeking favour with the king and his high officials;[[15]] reports on work in progress and references to building activities,[[16]] reports of conspiracy, disloyalty and crimes,[[17]] infringement of the privileges of the city of Assur,[[18]] and so on.
Correspondingly, some letters shed light on the relations of Assyria with irs neighbours to the east, south, west and north. Situations in far-away provinces and neighbouring states are clarified by means of intelligence reports, or, more telling in some instances, letters are based on quotations from first-hand intelligence activities.[[19]] References to actual battles, military activities or campaigns are scarce (see below, "Relations between Assyria and its Neighbours"). Tn the letters concerning foreign policy, both peaceful and hostile relations are attested.[[20]] A few letters relate to the transportation of goods from abroad, be it by means of trade, receiving tribute, taking booty or acquiring gifts.[[21]]
As is often the case with Nco-Assyrian royal letters, those edited in the present volume rarely give us explicit information on political issues or on the exact role of many individuals in important political affairs. Thus, important pieces of information are to be gathered from implicit hints. mostly found in seemingly meaningless details scattered here and there, and often in a broken context. Consequently, these snippets of knowledge have to be combined with the information obtained from other sources. In fact, many of the chief events of the reign of Esarhaddon. known primarily from his royal inscriptions, are not touched upon in these letters at all. For instance, we do not read anything about his successful and significant campaigns to Sidon in the west (676 B.C.) and Subria in the north (673 B.C.). There is nothing about the Elamite raids to Babylonia in the first half of his reign. Neither Esarhaddon' s military campaigns to Egypt nor his programmatic pu bi ic works in Babylonia are mentioned, not even in passing.[[22]] Fortunately, many people who appear in these letters are also known from other documents. and this additional information can often be helpful in the interpretation of the texts.[[23]]
1 A minority of the letters in both SAA 10 and SAA 13 are Neo-Babylonian.
2 Esarhaddon's letters and the letters from the early reign of Assurbanipal are in some instances almost inseparable from one another because they share the same archival context in Nineveh and the subject matters in their letters are rather similar. For the archival context and the types of texts from their reigns. see S. Parpola, CRRAI 30 (1986) 228ff.
3 One conspicuous difference between this volume and SAA I O and SAA I 3 is that they also have letters from Assurbanipal's reign, whilst here all the Assurbanipal letters (possibly with two exceptions. see notes on nos. 129 and 143) are from the time of his crown princehood (672-669). i.e. from the late reign of his father Esarhaddon.
4 Borger Esarh. Since the publication of that volume. several additional articles have been published by Borger and others. sec provisionally the list in Porter Images p. 177ff. A new volume on Esarhaddon's royal inscriptions isin preparation by E. Leichty. soon to be published in The Royal Inscriptions of Mesopotamia series.
5 See Grayson Chronicles pp. 82ff. and 125ff.
6 SAA 2 4-7 and 14. It is not certain if SAA 2 13 dates to the reign of Esarhaddon, see SAA 2 p. XXXIV. Cf. also SAA 2 8 (and for this text ibid .. p. XXXI) which was concluded after Esarhaddon's death in November 669.
7 SAA 3 10 and 33. See SAA 3 p. XX. and H. Tadmor. B. Landsberger and S. Parpola. SAAB 3 (1989) 31f and 45ff. Possibly also SAA 3 9. see A. George. SAAB I (1987) 39.
8 SAA 4 1-261. Of course it is possible that some of the more fragmentary queries do not date to the reign of Esarhaddon.
9 SAA 6 201 -306. It is not impossible that a few of the texts in SAA 6 with numbers lower than 201 or higher than 306 originate from Esarhaddon's reign. In addition there seem to be one document from his reign in SAA 14 (no. 474). see ibid., p. XXIII. For SAA 14 2 (671 or 666). sec. e.g. the footnotes under SAA 6 287:7. SAA 14 2. Melville Naqia/Zakutu p. 63 n. 14, and also the references in PNA 1/1 p. 233 s.v. Atar-ili 2. Moreover, SAA 14 3-7 are potentially from the reign of Esarhaddon but they are not accurately datable. Milki-nuri, eunuch of the queen, on whom this dossier contains information. is both known from the late reign of Esarhaddon and the early reign of Assurbanipal. see PNA 2/11 p. 752 s.v. Milki-nuri.
10 SAA 7 and SAA 11. Probably the majority of the texts in these two volumes date to the reign of Esarhaddon and the early years of Assurbanipal. cf. SAA 7 p. XIV.
11 SAA 8. As is the case with many other Neo-Assyrian documents. the majority of the astrological reports dates to the (late) reign of Esarhaddon as well as to the early years of Assurbanipal. See ibid., pp. XX and XXII.
12SAA 9 1 -7. possibly also 10. See SAA 9 p. LXVIIlff.
13 For the lime being only one land grant (SAA 12 24) can be dated to Esarhaddon's reign with certainty. see SAA 12 pp. XXlf and XXV. However, SAA 12 48 (land grant). 81 (schedule of offerings). and 89 (royal votive gift) may be attributed to his reign. cf. SAA 12 pp. XXV. XXXIII.
14 nos. 29, 32, 33, 41, 42, 45, 78, 82 and 112.
15 Mostly in the previous and the following groups of letters.
16 Cf. nos. 34, 79, 86, 111, 125, 183 and (in a fragmentary context) 184, 192, 197, 199, 204, 216, 217, 234 and 237.
17 E.g., no,. 21, 43, 59, 60, 6I, 63, 95 and 75.
18 Nos. 96-97.
19 Nos. 15-16, 18, 129 and 148.
20 E.g., nos. 1, 15, 129 and 137.
21 Nos. 131, 139, 140; perhaps also 141.
22 An excellent source about these works is Porter Images.
23 In some instances we have included cross-references to PNA. where the reader can find out more about the people attested in the present volume.
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere, 'Introduction', The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon, SAA 16. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2002; online contents: SAAo/SAA16 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2022 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa16/introduction/]