Assur-nada

Assur-nada was a merchant from Assur who did most of his business in Kanesh, today known as Kültepe. He was a son of Assur-idi, also a merchant in Assur. Father and son worked closely together but they kept separate accounts as is clear from Assur-idi’s insistence that Assur-nada not spend what he called “my silver”. Assur-nada’s two brothers also worked in the family business. A younger brother did a great deal of the travelling, including sometimes returning to their father in Assur. He died young of an illness. Assur-nada also did a lot of traveling through Anatolia, looking for places to sell his tin and textiles. It is possible that he even returned to Assur on occasion, but mostly he employed other traders to travel back home.

Not only is it remarkable we have insight on a business ventures of a man who lived almost 4000 years ago, but from business correspondence between Assur-nada and Assur-idi we can also look into their personal lives. When Assur-nada had gone to live in Kanesh, he had left his son and daughters in home in Assur to be raised by their grandparents since their mother was dead. On one occasion Assur-idi had wrote to Assur nada:

I raised your son but he said: “You are not my father”, whereupon he left; I also raised your daughters, but they said: “You are not our father”. On the third day they left and departed for you and now I want to know what you have to tell me.

The statement “You are not my father” was a particularly powerful one in Mesopotamia, one with legal implications. In this way Assur-nada’s children had formally broken the ties with their grandfather to rejoin their father and his new Anatolian wife. What is particularly interesting in above mentioned letter is that the business matters were discussed first and the family crisis was mentioned almost as an afterthought.