Position in chronology
SAA 13 012. The Sanctuary of Mullissu is Completed (ABL 1092)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 13(1) To the king, my lord, your servant, Marduk-šallim-ahhe, the one who blesses you. Good health to the king, my lord. May Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, Bel, Nabû, Ištar of Nineveh, and Ištar of Arbela very greatly bless the king, my lord. May they give to the king, my lord, long days and numerous years of happiness and physical well-being. (13) The sanctuary of Mullissu is completely built. (14) Iyyar (II) and Sivan (III) are favorable months. In the Abšegeda (almanac) it is written as follows: "On the 11th day, the god of the temple will be favorably disposed toward the temple." (19) If the king, my…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 13 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka mdMES—DI—PAB-MEŠ / ka-ri-ib-ka / lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / daš-šur d30 dUTU dEN dAG / d15 ša NINA.KI d15 ša URU.arba-ìl / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / a—dan-niš a—dan-niš lik-ru-bu / UD-me ar-ku-ú-ti / MU.AN.NA-MEŠ ma-aʾ-da-a-ti / ṭu-ub ŠÀ-bi ṭu-ub UZU / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia lid-di-nu / BARAG ša dNIN.LÍL ra-ṣip ga-am-mur / ITI.GUD ITI.SIG₄ ITI-MEŠ / ṭa-bu-u-ti šu-nu /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a temple priest or ritual official to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Steven Cole & Peter Machinist (SAA 13, 1998). ORACC text P334730.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Steven W Cole, Peter Machinist, Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Priests to Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal (State Archives of Assyria, 13), 1998. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko and Silvie Zamazalová, 2011-13, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P334730/..
Translation excerpted from Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P334730/.
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.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.