Position in chronology
SAA 21 107. Duplicate of No. 106 (CT 54 189)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2') [... no one t]arried [in Elam, they have returned to Babylon. They tell me t]he news of Marduk-šarru-uṣur: [“We have seen (it)], he [we]nt for dinner to [Tammaritu] [i]n our presence.” [I have sent other] men, too, telling them to go and [speak] with him, [come back and] give me a [si]gn from him. (8') [As soon as I heard (this) report], I wrote to the king, my lord: “Šamaš-šumu]-ukin [......] (Break) (r 2') [If it pleases the king, my [l]ord, [let the king, m]y lord, [order that] they [should be] shown a house in Nineveh and [live there, and let me send] my…
Source: 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/P238663/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [ina KUR.NIM.MA.KI 01-en ul] ⸢im*-mir-ka a*-na*⸣ / [TIN.TIR.KI it-te-eḫ-su-ni] ⸢ṭè*⸣-em šá mdAMAR.UTU—LUGAL—PAB / [i-qab-bu-ni um-ma ni-ta-mar] ⸢ina⸣ pa-ni-ni a-na NINDA-ḪI.A / [a-na mtam-mar-i-te i]-⸢te⸣-ru-ub ù ERIM-MEŠ / [šá-nu-ti-ma al-ta-par um]-ma al-ka-ma it-ti-šú / [du-ub-ba iḫ-sa-nim-ma i]-da-as-su qí-ba-ni / [ṭè-e-mu ki-i áš-mu-ú] a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P238663.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238663). source
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/P238663/.
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.