Reading and writing in Paleo-Babylonian Mesopotamia : correspondence

In the minds of Mesopotamian scribes at the beginning of the second millennium, writing was invented for the needs of long-distance communication between kings. This is what we learn from a famous passage in the epic Enmerkar and the Lord of Aratta : because the message to be transmitted to the Lord of Aratta was too complex, and the messenger unable to repeat it correctly, the Uruk king Enmerkar invented cuneiform writing.Infact, it wasfrom 2000 BC onwards that letters underwent spectacular development, both quantitatively and qualitatively. Correspondence was used not only for diplomatic relations, but also for commercial and private purposes. Generally speaking, we focus primarily on the content of the letters that have come down to us - over 6,000 have been published to date. This year, we'd like to take a closer look at how these letters were written, transported and read to/by their addressees: it's only by paying close attention to this that a proper interpretation of these often elliptical texts becomes possible.