This volume contains all the remaining Neo-Assyrian letters datable to the reign of Esarhaddon that were not edited in SAA 10 (letters of scholars) and SAA 13 (letters of priests). In practice this means, for example, that the letters written by Assurbanipal to Esarhaddon, which were previously assigned to a separate Assurbanipal volume, as well as the letters written to Assurbanipal as crown prince, are included in the present volume. Seven of the letters included (nos. 52-58) are not addressed to the king or the crown prince but to various officials and private people.
The texts edited in this volume include ten previously unpublished letters or letter fragments (K 1273, K 15626, K 1652 1, K 16550, K 19787, K 19979, K 19986, K 20565, 83-1-18,147, 83-1-18,153, and 83-1-18,742 + Bu 91-5- 9, 149), which were identified as parts of the Esarhaddon correspondence by Parpola, and the editions are based on transliterations prepared by him. All of these texts were collated by us in February 2002, and virtually all of them were copied by Van Buylaere on 11-15/02/02 (see pp. 217-218). Only one fragment (83-1-18, 147 = no. 191) was left uncopied because of its poor state of preservation.
The volume includes seven letters from a certain Bel-iqisa (nos. I 11-117), who is mentioned in a letter of Ubru-Nabû (no. 110) and hence seems to belong to the reign of Esarhaddon. One additional letter of uncertain date (ABL 390) by Bel-iqisa has been excluded from the volume, however, because this writer is almost certainly to be identified with the homonymous governor of Gambulu under Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal, who revolted against the latter in 664 and died in obscure circumstances (see PNA 1/II p. 315f). It cannot be totally excluded that the author of ABL 390 and our Bel-iqiša were in fact one and the same person, or that ABL 390 was actually written to Esarhaddon, but the likelihood is that it was written to Assurbanipal after the revolt (cf. ABL 390 r.16-18 with ABL 896:10-12).
Furthermore, this volume includes several unassigned fragments which have a certain likelihood of belonging to the reign of Esarhaddon. Their fragmentary condition, scarcity of intact lines and lack of distinctive features, however, makes it impossible to date and attribute them to a specific Neo- Assyrian king with any degree of certainty. Some of them may predate Esarhaddon's reign, and if so, they most probably belong to the correspondence of Sargon II edited in SAA l, 5 and 15. A few of these fragments may been written after Esarhaddon' s reign, and thus date to the reign of Assurbanipal.
Two letters (nos. 98 and 99) edited in this volume may pre-date Esarhaddon's time. They have two things in common: (1) A scribe named Kabtî, who is the writer of no. 98 (there titled the "scribe of the palace superintendent") and is mentioned in no. 99 (there identified as "scribe of Aššur-da"in-aplu, son of Shalmaneser"), and (2) the "dissolved ordinances of the palace" (no . 98). which are reported as having been re-established in no. 99. It is obvious that the letters belong together, but their dating presents a problem. The son of Shalmaneser mentioned in no. 99 is most likely to be identified with -\ssur-da"in-aplu, the rebellious son of Shalmaneser III (858-824), but the matter is complicated by two texts showing that a scribe called Kabtî also was active in Esarhaddon' s time, in which case a(n otherwise unknown) son of Shalmaneser V (727-722) could also be in question (see Parpola, LAS 1I, p. 256: 19, and cf. PNA 1 /T and 2/1 s.vv. Aššur-da"in-aplu and Kabtî). Since the letters would otherwise have had no place in any SAA volume, it seemed reasonable to include them in the present edition.
Sixteen further letters which were preliminarily assigned to the volume were subsequently excluded for various reasons:
ABL 1116, ABL 1167, CT 53 142, CT 53 619 and CT 53 968 belong to the Assurbanipal volume.
ABL 1272, CT 53 512, CT 53 683, CT 53 712 and K 16561 are letters to Sargon II.
CT 53 670 is fragment of an extispicy query to be added to SAA 4. CT 53 399 is a literary text. CT 53 412 and 548 are administrative texts to be added to SAA 11. CT 53 531 is a legal fragment to be added to SAA 6.
The letters are basically arranged according to the same principles as in previous volumes. All identifiable letters by the same sender have been grouped together into dossiers, and the dossiers have been ordered principally according to geographical criteria (the provenances of the letters), with letters from central Assyria (including the royal letters and other letters from the royal court and the capital) coming first and unassignable letters last. The only exception to this rule is constituted by Chapters 3 to 5 containing petitions, private letters, and denunciations, where the geographical criterion is not strictly applied.
Uncertain or conjectural translations are indicated by italics. Interpretative additions to the translation are enclosed within parentheses. All restorations are enclosed within square brackets. Untranslatable passages are indicated by dots.
Month names are rendered by their Hebrew equivalents, followed by a Roman numeral (in parentheses) indicating the place of the month within the lunar year. Personal, divine and geographical names are rendered by English or Biblical equivalents if a well-established equivalent exists (e.g., Esarhaddon, Nineveh); otherwise, they are given in transcription with length marks deleted. The normalisation of West-Semitic names follows PNA.
The rendering of professions is a compromise between the use of accurate but impractical Assyrian terms and inaccurate but practical modern or classical equivalents.
The primary purpose of the critical apparatus is to support the readings and translations established in the edition, and it consists largely of references to collations of questionable passages, scribal mistakes corrected in the transliteration, alternative interpretations and other texts used for restorations. Collations given in copy at the end of the volume are referred to briefly as "see coll." Collations included in Waterman's RCAE and Ylvisaker's grammar (LSS 5/6) are referred to as "W" and "Y" respectively followed by page number (e.g, W 26 1 means a collation communicated in RCAE III p. 261).
The critical apparatus does contain some additional information relevant to the interpretation of the texts, but it is not a commentary. For the convenience of the reader, references to studies of individual letters and related letters in the Esarhaddon corpus are occasionally given, but with no claim to completeness. Comments are kept to a minimum, and are mainly devoted to problems in the text, The historical and technical information contained in the texts is generally not commented upon.
The electronically generated glossary and indices, prepared by Parpola and checked by the editors, follow the pattern of the previous volumes. Note that in contrast to the basic dictionaries, verbal adjectives are for technical reasons mostly listed under the corresponding verbs, with appropriate cross-references.
The references to professions attached to the index of personal names have been provided by a computer programme written by Parpola. It is hoped that these will be helpful in the prosopographical analysis of the texts, but it should be noted that the program omits certain deficiently written professions and the references are accordingly not absolutely complete.
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere
Mikko Luukko & Greta van Buylaere, 'On the Present Edition', 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/onthepresentedition/]