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Document Details :

Title: A Letter from the Governor of Emar to the Governor of Suḫu Concerning a River Ordeal
Author(s): COHEN, Yoram
Journal: Journal Asiatique
Volume: 303    Issue: 2   Date: 2015   
Pages: 175-180
DOI: 10.2143/JA.303.2.3120199

Abstract :
The tablet published here for the first time is a letter sent by the governor of the Land of Emar, Talmi-Šarruma, to the governor of the Land of Suḫu, Nabunnu. It is concerned with a river ordeal that takes place in the land of Suḫu, in all likelihood – at Id, or Ḫīt. The letter contains a total of thirty lines inscribed on the obverse, reverse, upper edge and left edge of the tablet. The obverse is dedicated to the greetings and salutations; the rest of the tablet deals with a case to be decided at the river ordeal. The case is about a dispute between two people, presumably from Emar. Because of the very nature of the epistolary genre the details regarding the case are rather opaque. The full understanding of the contents of the letter is further hampered by the damaged condition of some of the lines of the reverse. Nonetheless, the tablet sheds light on the political conditions in the Middle Euphrates region during the Late Bronze Age and offers some additional information regarding the legal procedures of the river ordeal.

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