Position in chronology
SAA 13 190. These Gods Should Go to Babylon (CT 53 141)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant, Šamaš-šumu-lešir. Good health to the king, my lord. May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord. (6) When the king, my lord, sent me to the Land of the Chief Cupbearer and gave fields to his servants, in that city to which I ascended, in one temple these six deities were dwelling: Marat-Sin of Eridu, Marat-Sin of Nemed-Lagudu, Marat-Eridu, Nergal, Amurru, and Lugalbanda. (16) The people there told me: "These gods came with the king's father from Issete. The king's father said: 'I will send them with Bel to Babylon.'" (23) No one has spoken about this to…
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/P313556/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mdUTU—MU—GIŠ / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / dAG ù dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL EN-ia lik-ru-bu / bé-et LUGAL [be]-lí a-na KUR GAL—KAŠ.LUL / iš-pur-an-ni-ni A.ŠÀ-MEŠ / a-na ARAD-⸢MEŠ⸣-[šú] ⸢id⸣-din-u-ni / ina ŠÀ-bi URU šu-ú bé-et e-lu-u-ni / dDUMU.MÍ—d30 ša ERI.DÙG / dDUMU.MÍ—d30 ša URU.né-med—la-gu-du / dDUMU.MÍ—ERI.DÙG dU.GUR / dMAR.TU dLUGAL.BÀN.DA / PAB 06 DINGIR-MEŠ…
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 P313556.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313556). 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/P313556/.
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