Position in chronology
SAA 13 155. They Should Start the Work before the Sacrifices Begin (ABL 0976)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 13(1) The king, my lord, should give an order to Dari-šarru, Ašš[ur-...], Urdu-Ea, Kiṣir-Aššur, and [NN]. We should go, and [they] should [sta]rt the work before the performance of the sacrifices of the [Inner City] is upon us. (7) The king, my lord, knows that if they [have not started it], the people will get gl[oomy] the very first day. (r 1) How do I know it? It is what Nabû-[... sa]id to me, so this time we shall do as it is appropriate to do. (r 4) As soon as we have [...] something, we shall vi[sit] the work and wr[ite].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 13 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na mdà-ri—LUGAL a-na maš-⸢šur⸣—[x x x x] / a-na mARAD—d60 a-na mki-ṣir—aš-šur a-na [mx x x] / LUGAL be-li ṭè-e-mu liš-⸢kun⸣ [o] / ni-il-lik Á.2-šú-nu ina UGU dul-li ⸢liš⸣-[ku-nu] / a-di na-saḫ UDU.SISKUR.SISKUR-MEŠ ša URU.[ŠÀ—URU] / la i-kaš-šá-da-nin-[ni o] / LUGAL be-li ú-da ki-ma Á.2-šú-nu [x x] / UD-mu 01-en UN-MEŠ ú-ta-⸢ad⸣-[du-ru] / ⸢ina* ŠÀ*⸣ mì-nim? ú-⸢da⸣-šú-u šá m⸢dAG*—x⸣+[x x x] /…
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 P334654.
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/P334654/..
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/P334654/.
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.