Archaeologists read 3,800-year-old letter without opening clay envelope
Researchers used a mobile X-ray scanner to uncover a frustrated message from a woman to her husband in ancient Anatolia.
Archaeologists have read a 3,800-year-old cuneiform letter without breaking its original clay envelope, according to a report by the Times of India. The message was written by a woman named Anna-anna to her husband, Ennum-Aššur, a merchant travelling in central Anatolia.
The letter, discovered at the ancient settlement of Kültepe in present-day Türkiye, details a dispute over unpaid silver. Anna-anna wrote to her husband after a fellow merchant, Laqēpum, refused to repay the silver he owed. The debtor claimed he would pay Ennum-Aššur personally upon his return and stated he had already paid another individual, Kudātum.
Researchers from the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at the University of Hamburg used a technology called Extracting Non-destructively Cuneiform Inscriptions (ENCI) to read the tablet. ENCI is a mobile computed tomography scanner that uses X-rays to examine the internal structure of sealed objects.
The multidisciplinary team included Assyriologist Cécile Michel, X-ray physicist Christian Schroer, and computer scientist Stephan Olbrich. They were able to reconstruct the tablet's internal structure and visualise the inscriptions without risking damage to the valuable historical artefact.
The tablet is currently preserved at the Museum of Anatolian Civilisations in Ankara. The researchers have demonstrated that ENCI can also be used on other heritage objects, such as Egyptian statuettes and Mesopotamian cylinder seals.