Summary

Business Letter   (  )
Artist	Itur-ili (Assyrian)
Title	Business Letter
Description	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!"
Date	between circa 1850 and circa 1700 BC date QS:P571,-1500-00-00T00:00:00Z/6,P1319,-1850-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1326,-1700-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902 (Old Assyrian)
Medium	baked clay
Dimensions	4.8 × 4.4 × 1.7 cm (1.8 × 1.7 × 0.6 in)
Collection	Walters Art Museum    Native name Walters Art Museum Location Baltimore, United States of America Coordinates 39° 17′ 48″ N, 76° 36′ 58″ W   Established 1934  Website thewalters.org Authority file : Q210081 VIAF: 128918374 ISNI: 000000040373611X ULAN: 500279110 LCCN: no00096900 GND: 16029354-6 WorldCat institution QS:P195,Q210081
Accession number	48.1462
Place of creation	Kanesh (present-day Kültepe, Turkey)
Object history	Dikran Kelekian, Paris and New York [claims found at Caesarea] 1913: purchased by Henry Walters, Baltimore 1931: bequeathed to Walters Art Museum by Henry Walters
Exhibition history	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.
Source	Walters Art Museum: Home page  Info about artwork
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This file was provided to Wikimedia Commons by the Walters Art Museum as part of a cooperation project. All artworks in the photographs are in public domain due to age. The photographs of two-dimensional objects are also in the public domain. Photographs of three-dimensional objects and all descriptions have been released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License and the GNU Free Documentation License. In the case of the text descriptions, copyright restrictions only apply to longer descriptions which cross the threshold of originality. العربيَّة | English | français | italiano | македонски | русский | sicilianu | +/−

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