Some senders and letters can be assigned only to particular periods without a more precise date:
Building activities at Dur-Šarrukin mentioned determine a group of letters to the time between 717 and 706.[[139]] Of course this was Sargon' s largest building program, but by far not his only one. Therefore, if Dur-Šarrukin is not explicitly mentioned, letters dealing with workforce, building material or work assignments can be connected only vaguely with Dur-Šarrukin.
Kar-Šarrukin was established in 716 as a new provincial center. However the dates of many letters (except 106) which mention the city can be determined more precisely (see below).
Babylonian affairs cannot be dated before Sargon's involvement there which did not begin until 710. It can be ruled out that letters reporting on administrative activities in the "holy cities" of Babylon, Sippar or Borsippa were sent before the conquest of northern Babylonia. However, without additional hints to other datable events included, such letters could have been written at any point between 710 and 706, or even in 705.
139 According to the eponym chronicles Dur-Šarrukin was founded in 717 and completed in 701 (Millard Eponyms p.46 and 48).
140 The king stayed overnight (223 r. 9-10), so the letter was written between 710 and 707, when Sargon was in Babylonia.
141 Sabhanu, mentioned in no. 240, appears also in no. 238.
Andreas Fuchs
Andreas Fuchs, 'Longer-Term Events that Provide a Less Precise Date', The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part III: Letters from Babylonia and the Eastern Provinces, SAA 15. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 2001; online contents: SAAo/SAA15 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2021 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa15/AnAttempttoProvideaChronologicalFramework/Longer-TermEventsthatProvideaLessPreciseDate/]