For the most part the others are fragmentary and of no special interest. It is noteworthy that they all begin with much the same form of greeting.
Dr. T. G. Pinches published the text of three letters of this period in Recueil des Travaux.[954] Two are very fragmentary; the third reads thus:
Note from Suḳâ to Bêl-zêr-ibnî, my father: May Bêl and Nabû decree health and wealth to my father. Now I am going without the ass. Give the ass to Shamash-eṭir; let him send it. Give him the clothes (?).
Here is an interesting letter:[955]
Note from Daian-bêl-uṣur to Shirḳu, my lord: Every day I pray to Bêl and Nabû for the health of my lord's life. Concerning the lambs, which my lord sent, Bêl and Nabû know that there is a lamb from before thee. I have set the crop and fixed the stable. I have seen thy servant with the sheep; send thy servant with the lambs, and direct that one lamb from among them be offered as a gift to Nabû. I have not turned so much as one sheep into money. On the twentieth I worked [or sacrificed] for Shamash. I saw fifty-six. From his hands I sent twenty head to my lord. The garlic which the governor received from my lord, the owners of the field, when they came, took possession of; the governor of fields sold it for money. I am deprived of the yoke of the harrow (?). As to what my lord said to me, saying, “Wherefore hast thou not sent a messenger and measured out the crop?” Forthwith (?) I will send to thee, let a messenger of thy appointing (?) take it and keep it.
Several words in this text are not found elsewhere, but very strangely we know much about the persons. Shirḳu, whose other name was Marduk-nâṣir-aplu, son of Iddinâ, was of the important commercial house of Egibi, and lived in the reign of Darius. He was a great ship-owner, and had the tolls of a certain bridge. He travelled to Elam in the fifth year of Darius. A great many of his business transactions are detailed by Dr. Pinches.[956] Daian-bêl-uṣur and his wife Nanâ-bêl-uṣri were slaves of Shirḳu, who pledged them with their six children, at one time. In the sixteenth year of Darius their master gave them as part of her dowry, to Amat-Bau, daughter of Kalbâ. They lived in the town of Suppatum.
The reader has now before him a few specimens of this extremely valuable but very obscure class of literature. As time and study avail to clear up the obscurities, much more will be learned of the life and customs of these ancient peoples. Enough may have been given to stimulate research, [pg 385] and interest a wider circle of readers. It is the writer's hope that many may be led, even by these scattered and disjointed specimens, to undertake such studies as may render more perfect his slight contribution and rescue from oblivion the heroes of a bygone civilization.