Letters from Gambulu (nos. 92-128)

The region Gambulu, northeast of Babylon, always bridged the economic and political centres of middle and northern Babylonia to their eastern neighbour Elam. Commercial and military routes crossed the region from east to west. As a consequence the main task of the military commanders of this region was to guard the eastern approaches to Babylonia. Especially in times of crisis they had to report all suspicious movements to the Assyrian court — this was particularly true when there was a political and military anti-Assyrian axis between Elam and Babylon. This happened for example after Sargon's death in 705 when Merodach-Baladan had fled to Elam and used this route to establish himself in Babylonia again — his takeover of the throne in Babylon and 704 shows his temporary success in this affair. It is evident that an avalanche of letters written by the commanders from Gambulu reached Sennacherib and his magistrates.

The first subgroup of letters from Gambulu is the dossier of Lanšê, nos. 92-100. It is sometimes difficult to assign these letters precisely because several individuals named Lanšê appear in the Kuyunjik corpus of letters.[[51]] His letters, however, are easily recognisable because they have a idiosyncratic ductus of writing — deeply imprinted, narrow writing with slim upper and lower length, the sign A has three staggered verticals. Another characteristic feature of the Lanšê letters are numerous Assyriasms, which are pointed out in the notes to the relevant letters.

The letters inform us that the venture of Lanšê was based in western Gambulu where he could control the approaches to and from Babylon. His dispatches can be dated to the early years of Sennacherib's reign; for example, letter 94 is especially clear in speaking of the son of Sargon — cf. page XIX. This date for the dossier, however, still allows for the possibility that Lanšê had already served earlier in this function. He is apparently mentioned (though without preserved context) in letter no. 23 of Bel-iqiša, dating to 710. The other mention of his name probably referred to the reign of Sennacherib.

The two letters nos. 101 and 102 are written by the commander of troops, Badâ. They are addressed to the king and date to the reign of Sargon. No. 101 apparently alludes to the decisive battle between the troops of Sargon and Merodach-Baladan near Bab-Bitqi.[[52]] Hence it dates to 710. No. 102 in contrast dates to 706 because it recommends Aqar-Bel-lumur as his successor. Badâ was stationed in Dur-Abihara, Sargon's newly constructed fortress near the Elamite-Babylonian border and capital of Gambulu.[[53]]

The voluminous dossier of the commander Aqar-Bel-lumur and his colleague Nabû-šumu-lišir consists as far as we know today of 24 letters, nos. 103-126. Twelve of these (nos. 103-1 14) are authored solely by Aqar-Bel-lumur; six are co-authored by Nabû-šumu-lišir and Aqar-Bel-lumur (nos. 115-120); and six solely by Nabû-šumu-lišir.[[54]] Either the king, the viceroy Bel-ibni, the vizier, the master of the court or someone with an undefinable function are the addressees. Our research shows that all of these letters date to the reign of Sennacherib, belonging to a time frame between 704 (mostly reports about Merodach-Baladan's whereabouts) down to at least 693.

The two fragmentary letters of the Gambulean officer Kalbi-Ukû (nos. 127 and 128) offer no clues of any date. Kalbi-Ukû, however, appears in Aqar-Bel- lumur's letter 111 (in the longer form of his name Kalbi-Ukûa) and in the fragment no. 192 together with Lanšê.[[55]] Hence we might conclude that he apparently belongs to the circle of these commanders who were active during Sennacherib's reign.



51 Cf. R. Pruszinszky, PNA 2/2, 652; in Assyrian orthography sometimes written Lansî, ci. SAA 15, p. 254.

52 Cf. above pp. XVIII and XXIII for no. 22, a letter of Bel-iqiša addressed to Sargon.

53 Cf. S. Parpola. AOAT 281 (2002), 566-569.

54 Cf. ibid., 569-570.

55 Kalbi-Ukû(a) is mentioned several times in the fragmentary NA letter SAA 15 147-149 and 172. These references do not discount a date of service during the first years of Sennachenb because hisname appears without context in this particular case; cf., with a different opinion, A. BerleJung, PNA 2/1, 598.

Manfried Dietrich

Manfried Dietrich, 'Letters from Gambulu (nos. 92-128)', The Neo-Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib, SAA 17. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2003; online contents: SAAo/SAA17 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa17/presentationoftheletters/fromgambulunos92128/]

 
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