The Old Akkadian Letter Corpus: New Interpretations and a Possible Addition

The corpus of Old Akkadian letter-orders is rather small, but very significant in terms of both linguistic and historical reconstructions. The present article offers a re-examination of two Sargonic letter-orders from Southern Mesopotamia (Adab and Girsu), whose understanding can be improved on the basis of new restorations and philological analysis. In addition, this contribution draws attention on a hitherto neglected fragment from northern Syria (Tell Leilan), which may also be framed in the same text corpus. These new interpretations provide further insights on the administrative issues that the Akkadian empire was to face toward the second half of Naram-Suen’s reign. The management of specialized workforce by the central institutions appears to be problematic, because of local priorities on task assignments, and lack of prompt communication with the central agencies. The bureaucratic apparatus seems equally inadequate for dealing with urgent matters, such as travel provisions to be assigned to a messenger for the delivery of news. The unfriendly, imperative tone attested in these letters fits well in the scenario of an administration still under development, and sometimes incapable of dealing with the social, economic and political complexity brought about by the first world empire.