In the case of Hammurabi
we have recovered some of the actual letters sent by the king himself to
Sin-idinnam, his local governor in the city of Larsam, and from them we
gain considerable insight into the principles which guided him in the
administration of his empire.
The letters themselves, in their general characteristics, resembled the
contract tablets of the period which have been already described. They
were written on small clay tablets oblong in shape, and as they were
only three or four inches long they could easily be carried about the
person of the messenger into whose charge they were delivered. After the
tablet was written it was enclosed in a thin envelope of clay, having
been first powdered with dry clay to prevent its sticking to the
envelope. The name of the person for whom the letter was intended was
written on the outside of the envelope, and both it and the tablet were
baked hard to ensure that they should not be broken on their travels.
The recipient of the letter, on its being delivered to him, broke the
outer envelope by tapping it sharply, and it then fell away in pieces,
leaving the letter and its message exposed. The envelopes were very
similar to those in which the contract tablets of the period were
enclosed, of which illustrations have already been given, their only
difference being that the text of the tablet was not repeated on the
envelope, as was the case with the former class of documents.
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