Alammuš-nāṣir[individual=Alammuš-nāṣir]’s archive is a family archive, reconstructed from texts in various collections, including letters and administrative documents, dated to Samsuilūna’s reign (1750-1712 BCE) during the Old Babylonian Period.
1. A Reconstructed Archive from Tablets in Various Collections
Alammuš-nāṣir’s archive contains 69 tablets, most of which are still unpublished. Charpin identified 30 letters as part of the lot: 9 are preserved in the Yale Babylonian Collection, 2 in the Musée du Louvre, and 1 in the Vatican, while the 18 unpublished letters are in the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Charpin 2008a: 17). In addition to the epistolary texts, we find 39 administrative texts: the only 2 edited documents are those from the Musée du Louvre, while the 37 unpublished ones are kept at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago (Charpin 2008a: 17). As part of the i3.MesopOil project, we are studying some of this archive’s published letters, in particular in AbB 9 (Stol 1981).
2. An Archive from Damrum
Letters belonging to the archive came from Damrum[geogr=Damrum] (ḫi.ĝarki), where Alammuš-nāṣir’s domain was. The administrative texts were all dated from year 15 to year 20 of Samsuilūna’s reign (1735-1730 BCE), and, therefore, the letters are from the same period (Charpin 2008a: 17). The administrative texts are divided into two main groups by Charpin: 21 texts concern the management of flour for meals and record grain for equids (all of them sealed by Alammuš-nāṣir), while 12 texts concern the management of workers, including barley allotments (Charpin 2008a: 17).
3. A Unique Style of Letter-Writing
Most of the letters in the archive were addressed by Alammuš-nāṣir to his steward, Nābium-Šamaš, giving full of details for a good handling of his instructions. His style of letter-writing makes his texts very precious for the topics he treated since he has written down aspects that usually must have been communicated only orally. Charpin who had observed this style, wrote: „Cette absence d’un homme manifestement autoritaire et tatillon fournit un cas de figure inespéré : sa correspondance évoque en effet des sujets très concrets qui d’habitude relèvent des ordres donnés par oral.“ (Charpin 2008a: 18)
4. The Babylonian Society, Sesame and Oils Seen from the Archive
The subjects covered in Alammuš-nāṣir’s archive are remarkably diverse. They testify to different aspects of Babylonian society during Samsuilūna’s reign: several letters document, among other things, the transport of sesame seeds (YOS 15 066) and the production of oil (AbB 09 011, AbB 09 125). One letter, AbB 09 117, presumably sent by his wife, Elmēštum, may be the only reference we have for almonds or almond oil in the Old Babylonian period.
The archive of Alammuš-nāṣir’s domain is the subject of a book in preparation (Archibab NN, Paris, SEPOA) by Charpin, as indicated on the Archibab database. A short summary of the archive has been published by Charpin 2008a.