In 2002 and 2003, we discovered an archive of 28 unbaked clay cuneiform tablets dating to the Late Assyrian period. These were found in Operation G, in the southwestern portion of the Lower Town, in a large public building being excavated by Dr. John MacGinnis (Cambridge University). The tablets were transcribed and translated by Prof. Simo Parpola (Helsinki University) who serves as the project Epigrapher. Most of the documents are short administrative texts, many of which are receipts for grain.

Two of the tablets have eponym dates: one of Nabu-tapputi-alik, a chief eunuch who held office in 613 BC and one dated by a previously unattested Assur-sharrani probably to 611 BC, the year after the fall of Nineveh at the very end of the Assyrian empire. These dates suggest that the archive found in the Operation G building was probably written in the last decade of the Assyrian empire and represents the latest Assyrian occupation of Ziyaret Tepe.

A detailed study of the tablets by Prof. Parpola shows that there were at least five different scribes involved in the writing of the tablets; four of whom we can now name: Kiqillanu, Luqu, Sasi, and Mannu-ki-Ninua. Many of the tablets dealt with the provisioning of a range of institutions all of which are connected in some way to the patron goddess of Ziyaret Tepe/Tushhan, Ishtar of Nineveh. Prof. Parpola has suggested, based on the contents of the texts found in the Operation G building, that this may represent the treasury of a Temple of Ishtar of Nineveh.

One of the most interesting texts is a long letter from a man named Mannu-ki-Libbali to his lord, probably a treasurer at Ziyaret Tepe. Mannu-ki-Libbali explains in his letter that he is unable to do his job -- in this case to raise a chariotry unit for the army -- due to a lack of horses, officials, and artisans who are required to do so. He ends his letter with the glum note that: 'Death will come out of it!'. (Parpola 2006). This marks the end of the Assyrian occupation at Ziyaret Tepe/Tushhan.