"Return the money": scientists read a 3,800-year-old letter from a wife

Archaeologists have deciphered a clay tablet approximately 3,800 years old, found in Turkey. The author of the letter, a woman named Anna-anna, complains to her husband about a debtor who does not return silver. Researchers used modern scanning technologies to read the text without damaging the artifact.

Archaeologists have deciphered a clay tablet approximately 3,800 years old, found in modern-day Turkey. The author of the letter, a woman named Anna-anna, complains to her husband Ennum-Ashshur about a certain Lakepum who does not return borrowed silver. The letter remained sealed in a clay envelope for nearly 4,000 years; researchers studied it using modern technologies without damaging the artifact. The find shows that problems with debts and financial disputes troubled people already in antiquity. Scientists note that new scanning methods allow studying such documents without destroying their envelopes.