The Old Babylonian period (ca. 1900-1600 BC) comprises the first large corpus of Akkadian letters sent between rulers, officials, and private individuals. Although highly formalized these messages contain invaluable data for everyday vernacular. Besides a huge amount of excavated material, which mainly originates from Mari on the Middle Euphrates and some Babylonian sites, great quantities of letters came into cuneiform collections via antiquities dealers. Letters show often archival links to other administrative and legal documents, although they are usually treated quite separately. The data gained from economic records helps, however, to establish identifications of individuals more precisely. This kind of data is often shrouded from view in the messages, for mentioned individuals and even the two main parties of a written communication are generally not indicated by more than their name and/or occupation. This, in particular, demonstrates the quite narrow social context, in which letters have been sent from one individual or institution to another.

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