Line	Text original	Text translated
o. 1	a-na be-el-šu-nu	To Bēlšunu,
o. 2	qi₂-bi₂-ma	say:
o. 3	um-ma dutu-ha-zi-ir-ma	thus (speaks) Šamaš-ḫāzir
o. 4	dutu li-ba-al-li-iṭ-ka	May Šamaš keep you in good health!
o. 5	a-na bi-tim la te-eg-ge	Do not be careless about the house.
o. 6	0.1.0 gu₂.gal sa₃-am-da-a-tim
o. 7	šu-bi-lam
o. 8	i₃ bara₂.ga[glossary=ḫalṣum] ša tu-ša-bi-lam	The hulled-(sesame seeds) oil[glossary=ḫalṣum] that you sent me
o. 9	a-na e-ṣe-ni-im u₂-ul na-ṭu₂-u₂	is unpleasant to smell.
o. 10	še.giš.i₃[glossary=šamaššammū] ma-aḫ-ri-ka
o. 11	li-iḫ-lu-ṣu₂-ma[glossary=ḫalāṣum] ta-ša-ab
o. 12	ma-aḫ-ri-ka li-iṣ-hu-tu[glossary=ṣaḫātum]	(then), let them mill[glossary=ṣaḫātum] (the oil also) in your presence!
r. 1	[e]?-ri-[i]š-tam i-de-ma	I know the requested amount?;
r. 2	[x] ⸢x⸣ i₃ bara₂.g[a du-u]m-[m]i-qa₂-am-ma [šu]-bi-lam	be so kind and send me […] hulled(-sesame seeds) oil.
r. 3	u₃ [x] x x i[t]-ti ⸢a⸣-[ḫ]a-t[i]-k[a]
r. 4	a-na ṣe-ri-ia ṭu₂-ur-da-aš-šu

1. Palaeographical and Philological Commentary

• Obverse, line 8: The translation „hulled“ for ḫalṣum-oil or -sesame is justified in the Dossier A.1.1.22. The research on this term results from a collaborative work with Paola Paoletti, presented in the first i3.MesopOil Project workshop Production of Vegetable Oils in the Ancient Near East and Beyond. Cultivation, Pressing and Manufacturing Processes (Munich/Zoom, 1-2 July 2021), during the following presentation: “The Pressing of Sesame Oil According to Ur III and Old Babylonian Written Sources: Problems of Reconstruction”.
• Obverse, lines 11-12: The third person plural probably suggests here oil millers or perfumers, a procedure that Bēlšunu must watch out for.
• Reverse, line 1: Stol transliterated this line as follows: [x] ri-[i]š-tam i-d[i]/[k]i-ma. Considering Lutz’s copy (YOS 02 058; YBC 06126), the first sign is broken (Lutz 1917); given the rest and the context, we can assume that this is erištum, “request”. Stol proposed that the sign in the break could be i3. Regarding the verb at the end of the line, Stol hesitated between di and ki. According to the copy, it could be more of a di, but this remains uncertain. The only verb which could correspond to the context would be edûm („to know“) in the imperative tense. However, this assumption remains uncertain.
• Reverse, line 2: The first sign is broken on Lutz’s copy; if traces of the second sign remain, the possibilities are too numerous (na, di, ki ?) to make a proposal. One would expect a word as “soon” or a total.
• Reverse, line 3: The second sign of the line is broken on Lutz’s copy; the following two signs have, respectively, structures of di (or ki) and ib. Since Šamaš-ḫāzir refers to the sending (ṭarādum) of his sister, these three signs are clearly for an anthroponym.

2. Historical Commentary

2.1. A Letter from the Kiš Region

Fiette 2018a: 6, n. 40 wrote that this letter and the others addressed to Bēlšunu by Šamaš-ḫāzir (AbB 09 020, AbB 09 028, AbB 09 051, AbB 09 085, AbB 09 099, AbB 09 103, AbB 09 137, AbB 09 142) could not be part of the Šamaš-ḫāzir’s archive, the šassukum-intendant of Larsa, since toponyms mentioned in these texts are rather to be located in Northern Babylonia rather than Southern Babylonia; moreover, the prosopographical investigation made by Fiette has shown that only one homonym (Munawwirum, a gardener) is present both in this set of letters and in Šamaš-ḫāzir’s (from Larsa), while the others are not attested, notably Bēlšunu. Actually, this letter is considered to come from Kiš or its region. According to Archibab (Sommerfield, 2020), they shall be attributed to Bēlšunu’s archives since he is the letter recipient.

2.2. Oil Milling Technology According to AbB 09 058

This letter is important because it shows several stages of oil milling technology in the Old Babylonian period. Indeed, the fact that the oil “does not smell good” (ana eṣēnim ul naṭû) implies that the oil-manufacturing process has to be done again. Consequently, the sender, Šamaš-ḫazir, asks Bēlšunu to control two stages of oil production: first, the hulling of the sesame seeds (ḫalāṣum[glossary=ḫalāṣum]) and then the milling (ṣaḫātum[glossary=ṣaḫātum]); both actions must be carried out in his presence in order to control the quality of the whole manufacturing process of hulled-(sesame seeds) oil (šamnum ḫalṣum[glossary=ḫalṣum]). According to the letter and our knowledge of the Mesopotamian technology of oil milling, these two steps do not represent the chaîne opératoire for producing a ’normal‘ or ‚classic‘ sesame oil, but a sesame oil of a specific kind, guaranteed by the fact that sesame seeds are hulled.

For more details on oil milling technology and the distinction between ḫalāṣum and ṣaḫātum, see the commentary in Dossier A.1.1.22.