English: Around 20,000 clay tablets were found at the site of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh). Such a large find indicates that the city had an extensive commercial quarter, where foreign Assyrian merchants lived and operated during the 19th century BC. Sent from Itur-ili in Assyria to Ennam-Ashur in Kanesh, this letter concerns the important trade in precious metals. Itur-ili, the senior partner, offers wise words of advice to Ennam-Ashur: "This is important; no dishonest man must cheat you! So do not succumb to drink!"
Shrunken Treasures: Miniaturization in Books and Art. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. 2009.
Credit line
Acquired by Henry Walters, 1913
Inscriptions
[Transcription] From Itur-ili / to Ennam-Aszszur / say: 8 minas of tiri-silver / I gave you / 8 minas of tiri-silver / under my seal Saharli / and Azu have brought you; / in all, 16 minas have come to you. / Why is it that / for yourself / you have made every shekel of gold / that you could / and sent it here, / but you have sent nothing to me? / This is important: / buy for the 16 minas of silver / some red gold for smelting / and send it to me with your servant! / This is important: / a dishonest man / must not cheat you! / To drink / do not succumb! / White gold: / Do not involve yourself. / You must know that there is / a lot of white gold here.
This work is free and may be used by anyone for any purpose. If you wish to use this content, you do not need to request permission as long as you follow any licensing requirements mentioned on this page.
The Wikimedia Foundation has received an e-mail confirming that the copyright holder has approved publication under the terms mentioned on this page. This correspondence has been reviewed by a Volunteer Response Team (VRT) member and stored in our permission archive. The correspondence is available to trusted volunteers as ticket #2012021710000834.
This work is in the public domain in its country of origin and other countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 100 years or fewer.
You must also include a United States public domain tag to indicate why this work is in the public domain in the United States.
to share – to copy, distribute and transmit the work
to remix – to adapt the work
Under the following conditions:
attribution – You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
share alike – If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you must distribute your contributions under the same or compatible license as the original.
Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts. A copy of the license is included in the section entitled GNU Free Documentation License.http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.htmlGFDLGNU Free Documentation Licensetruetrue
Captions
Add a one-line explanation of what this file represents
== {{int:filedesc}} == {{Walters Art Museum artwork |artist = Itur-ili (Assyrian) |title = ''Business Letter'' |description = {{en|Around 20,000 clay tablets were found at the site of Kültepe (ancient Kanesh). Such a larg...
File usage
The following pages on the English Wikipedia use this file (pages on other projects are not listed):