The city of Babylon was excavated between 1899 and 1917 by a team led by Robert Koldewey on behalf of the Deutsche Orient-Gesellschaft. The expedition discovered a large number of cuneiform tablets, many of which came from the Merkes area, where a number of private houses were located. Due to the high groundwater level, it was difficult to systematically excavate large sections of the Old and Middle Babylonian layers from the second millennium BCE. In the few years when the water level was lower, it became possible to reach these levels and smaller sections were investigated. A number of archives from these early periods were discovered. Many of these archives could be dated to the years prior to the fall of the First Dynasty of Babylon and to the last years of the Kassite dynasty. Findings from the Koldewey excavations were transferred to the Archaeological Museums of Istanbul, the Vorderasiatisches Museum in Berlin and the National Museum of Iraq.
This volume primarily provides text editions of the Babylon cuneiform tablets from the second millennium BCE, which are currently stored in Istanbul. Based on these documents, the Old Babylonian archive of Kurû (Merkes 25p2) and the Middle Babylonian archive of Itti-Ezida-lummir (Merkes 26g2) are examined. In addition, a few tablets with the B-Siglum, which actually come from the city of Assur (modern Qal'at Sherqat), are included as well.