Position in chronology
SAA 13 138. The Priest of Ea Robs the Temple (ABL 1389)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant, Aššur-hamatu'a. Good health to the king, my lord. May Aššur, Ištar, Bel, and Nabû bless the king, my lord. (6) Nabû-epuš, the priest of Ea, has stolen property from the temple. He peeled off and removed the golden ... from the massive (offering) table which is in front of Ištar. Nabû-nadin-apli, the temple guard, caught him red-handed. (14) Even before my time, the [pries]t of Ea committed a [thef]t, but they (the temple authorities) retrieved it and covered it up. (r 1) The king should question him about both (cases). (r 2) When the king, my lord, had…
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/P334880/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka maš-šur—ḫa-mat-ia / lu-u DI-mu a-na MAN EN-ia / daš-šur d15 dEN dAG / a-na MAN EN-ia lik-ru-bu / mdPA—DÙ-uš LÚ.SANGA šá dÉ.A / tab-lu TAv É.KUR it-ta-bal / qa-a-ru ša KUG.GI / TAv UGU GIŠ.BANŠUR ut-ta-ri / ša ina IGI d15 / iq-ṭa-la-pa it-te-ši / mdPA—SUM—A LÚ.EN.NUN É—DINGIR / ina ŠU.2-šú iṣ-ṣa-bat / ⸢ù⸣ [ina] pa-na-tu-u-a / [LÚ].⸢SANGA⸣ šá dÉ.A / [tab-lu]-⸢um⸣-ma /…
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 P334880.
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/P334880/..
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/P334880/.
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