Position in chronology
SAA 13 135. It Is Not an Ancient Ritual (CT 53 965)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (3) I will go to [...]. There is [a ritual]. In [the month of ...], on the 16th day, in the even[ing, Ištar] will g[o] through the great gate [and] descend into the cana[l ...]. There is a ritual [he will perform]. She will then come up from the canal, go under the gate of the temple of Nabû, and take a seat in the shrine's gate. [Th]ere is a [ritual] he will perfo[rm]. She will then go d[own] from the shrine's gate in[to the ...] of the palace which faces the [...] of the drinking place. He will fin[ish] 3 libation jars. This is not a ritual; this is nothing. It is not…
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/P314374/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [x x x x]-e ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x]-ši ⸢x al⸣-lak [dul-lu] / i-ba-áš-ši ina ŠÀ-bi [ITI x x] / UD 16-KÁM ina sa-⸢ḫar?⸣—[UD-me d15] / ina ŠÀ ⸢KÁ⸣.GAL ra-⸢bi⸣-te tal-[lak x x] / ⸢tu-ra⸣-ad ina ŠÀ ḫi-ri-[te x x] / dul-lu i-ba-áš-ši [e-pa-áš] / TAv UGU ḫi-ri-te ta-⸢la⸣-[ka] / ina šap-la KÁ.GAL ša É—dPA / ⸢tal-lak ina KÁ⸣ suk-ki tu-⸢šab⸣ / [dul-lu i]-⸢ba⸣-áš-ši e-pa-[áš] /…
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 P314374.
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/P314374/..
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/P314374/.
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