Position in chronology
SAA 13 118. The Team of Black Horses Has Not Arrived Yet (ABL 1153)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my] lo[rd]: your servant [Nabû-šumu-iddina]. The very best of] health [to the king], my lord! May Nabû and [Marduk] ble[ss] the king, [my] lo[rd]! (8) Concerning the tea[m] of black (horses) charged to the people of Calah about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, saying: "Has it come in?" — it has not yet come in. (r 6) What (can I say)? May [I] not per[ish] because of the reminder of the king, my lord; the king will remember where [I am] stationed. May Nabû grant (even) broad(er) under[standing] to the king, my lord!
Source: 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/P334759/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-[lí-ia] / ARAD-ka md[PA—MU—AŠ] / lu DI-mu [a-na LUGAL] / be-lí-ia [a—dan-niš a—dan-niš] / dAG d[AMAR.UTU] / a-na LUGAL be-[lí-ia] / lik-ru-[bu] / ina UGU ú-⸢rat*⸣ / ša ṣal-mu-u-tú / ša pa-an / URU.kal-ḫa-a-a / ša LUGAL be-lí / iš-pur-an-ni / ma-a te-tar-ba-[a] / ú-di-i-[ni] / la te-ra-⸢ba⸣ / mi-i-nu / TAv pa-an ḫi-se-[te] / ša LUGAL be-lí-[ia] / lu la-a ḫal-[qa-ku] / É pa-aq-⸢da?⸣-[ku-ni] / LUGAL ḫa-si-⸢si⸣ / dAG uz-[nu] / ra-pa-áš-tu a-na LUGAL / be-lí-ia lid-din
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 P334759.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334759). source
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/P334759/.
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.