Position in chronology
SAA 21 084. Fragment Possibly Related to the Šamaš-šsumu-ukin War
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 21(Beginning destroyed) (1') ... when she sen]t me (2') ...] she placed me (3') ...] constellation (4') ...] she blessed me there. (5') ... At] that [time], (6') ... did not] bring the audience gift (7') but ...] offered strife. (8') ...] golden [...], b[ron]ze bracelet (9') ... I p]resented [...] (10') ...] he utter[ed ...] (rest broken away) (beginning broken away) (r 1') ......] ... [...] (r 2') ......ed] me (r 3') ......] perfec[t] (r 4') ......] ... [...] (r 5') ......] like a cr[ippled m]an (r 6') ... se]nt. Last year, (r 7') ...] my [...] weakened, and half of (r 8') ... in neces]sities (r 9') ... w]as taken way (r 10') ...] great [...] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 21 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[x x x taš]-⸢pur-an-ni⸣ / [x x x x] taš-kun-an-⸢ni⸣ / [x x x] ⸢x⸣ lum-ma-a-ši / [x x x ina] ŠÀ-bi-šú tak-ru-ban-ni / [x x ina UD?]-me-šú na-mur-tú / [x x x] ⸢x⸣ ú-qar-rib / [x x x] ⸢ṣal⸣-tú uq-ter-rib / [x x x x] KUG.GI ḪAR ⸢si-par⸣-ri / [x x x uq]-tar-rib šá ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x x] ⸢x⸣ iz-⸢za⸣-[kar x x] / [x x] ⸢x⸣ kar ⸢x⸣+[x x] / [x x x x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x x x x] a ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x x x…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P393904.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Simo Parpola, The Correspondence of Ashurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Babylonia, and Vassal States (State Archives of Assyria, 21), 2018. Adapted by Jamie Novotny and lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P393904/..
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P393904/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.