We shall not present the letters organised according to the reigns of Sargon and Sennacherib since we do not intend to anticipate the future results of thorough and detailed research. For such an undertaking it would be necessary to find more reasons for the proposed arrangement of the letters according to the reigns of the Sargonids - especially if we consider the obvious difficulties in reliably dating the documents purely on the basis of style, idiosyncracies and ductus of writing of the respective scribe or the choice of addressees. Instead, we shall group the letters — as in other letter volumes in the series — roughly according to the location and regions of their origin. If the senders are known by name, we will arrange their letters in corresponding subdivisions.
In the following, we will briefly mention the groups of letters and discuss how they may be dated approximately to either the reign of Sargon or Sennacherib. Afterwards, we shall present the results in the form of a chart.
Manfried Dietrich
Manfried Dietrich, 'The Presentation of the Letters', 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/]