BIBLE HISTORY DAILY

The Nimrud Letters

The royal archives of the Assyrian Empire

The Nimrud Letters are cuneiform tablets from the Assyrian royal city of Kalhu (present-day Nimrud). Their contents shed light on the history of the ancient Near East in the second half of the eighth century BCE, when Assyria became a regional superpower that eventually conquered or subdued the biblical kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

The tablets received their modern name after the place of their discovery, the city of Nimrud, which sits on the east bank of the Tigris River some 20 miles southeast of Mosul in northern Iraq. In the spring of 1952, a team from the British School of Archaeology in Iraq excavated them from an ancient dump beneath the chancery offices of the so-called Northwest Palace, which was established by Ashurnasirpal II as the principal royal residence in his new capital. Despite their secondary location, the tablets likely were originally housed in the same room, since they were part of the Assyrian state archives.

---

---

The group consists of almost 300 tablets and fragments, which make up about 230 individual letters. Made of clay and shaped into rectangles to fit the human hand, they typically do not exceed 3 inches in width but vary significantly in length depending on the extent of the text. Most of the letters are written in the Neo-Assyrian dialect and cuneiform script of the Akkadian language, whereas only about 30 letters use the Neo-Babylonian dialect and script. The Nimrud Letters are currently held in the National Museum of Iraq in Baghdad and the British Museum in London.

Most of these letters come from the second half of the eighth century. Although their dating and attribution is not definitive, they mostly represent the correspondence of the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser III (r. 744–727) and Sargon II (r. 721–705). A small portion belongs to Shalmaneser V and Sennacherib when they were both still crown princes.

---

Our website, blog and email newsletter are a crucial part of Biblical Archaeology Society's nonprofit educational mission

This costs substantial money and resources, but we don't charge a cent to you to cover any of those expenses.

If you'd like to help make it possible for us to continue Bible History Daily, BiblicalArchaeology.org, and our email newsletter please donate. Even $5 helps:

---

As correspondence between the Assyrian kings and their military officials and provincial governors, the Nimrud Letters provide a wealth of information on administrative and military matters of the Assyrian Empire. Among the letters’ broad range of subjects are royal building projects, tribute and taxes, international relations, and the distribution of supplies and goods. Curiously, they also elucidate the education and functions of the Assyrian crown princes and the workings of the royal express service facilitated by horses’ and mules. Significant for biblical studies, the letters offer insights into the imperial expansionist politics that led to the Assyrian annexation of Babylonia and other parts of the Near East, including the kingdoms of Israel and Judah. We also learn about deportations of populations from conquered territories—a practice illustrated in the famous Lachish reliefs from Nineveh and mentioned several times in the Hebrew Bible (e.g., 2 Kings 15–18; 1 Chronicles 5).

Henry W.F. Saggs, who took part in the 1952 excavations, published an edition and translation of the entire corpus in 2001: The Nimrud Letters, 1952 (Cromwell Press). A much-improved critical edition and translation appeared in 2012: Mikko Luukko, The Correspondence of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud (Eisenbrauns). A searchable version is available from the State Archives of Assyria Online portal, with facsimiles and photos of the tablets also available online, from the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative.

---

Ed. Note: This article originally appeared in the Fall 2025 issue of Biblical Archaeology Review.

Not a BAS Library or All-Access Member yet? Join today.

---

Related reading in Bible History Daily

10 Things to Know About the Assyrian Empire

An Assyrian Letter to the King of Judah

The Lachish Letters

All-Access members, read more in the BAS Library

Text Treasures: Nimrud Letters: The Royal Archives of Assyria

Europe Confronts Assyrian Art

Who Were the Assyrians?

How the Ten Tribes of Israel Were Lost