Position in chronology
SAA 08 079. Fog (RMA 252D) [weather]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If f[og occ]urs reg[ularly] in the land: the dynasty of the land will rule [the world]. (3) If a fog rolls and a wind rises: the gods will have mercy on the land. (5) [We kept] watch for the moon; on the 29th day, there were clouds, [we did not see the moon]. On the next day [...] it was 2 days old. (r 1) On the 5th and 6th day let [...] perform [the work] with each other. (r 4) From Nabû-ahhe-[eriba].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336550/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 ina KUR ⸢IM⸣.[DUGUD sa]-⸢dir⸣ / BALA KUR [kiš-šu-tú] i-bé-[el] / 1 IM.DUGUD iq-tur-⸢ma⸣ TU₁₅ ⸢ZI⸣ / DINGIR-MEŠ ana KUR ARḪUŠ TUK-[MEŠ] / ma-ṣar-tú ša d30 [ni-ta-ṣar] / UD 29-KÁM IM.DIRI [d30 la né-mur] / a-na 02-e UD-me / pa-[x x x] / ša 02 UD-MEŠ ⸢šu⸣-[ú] / UD 05-KÁM UD 06-⸢KÁM⸣ [x x x] / is-sa-a-ḫe-e-[iš dul-lu] / le-pu-u-[šu] / ša mdPA—PAB-MEŠ—[SU]
Scholarly note
Astrological report from a court scholar to an Assyrian king, edited by Hermann Hunger (SAA 8, 1992). Celestial and meteorological observation correlated with omens. ORACC text P336550.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336550). source
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336550/.
Related tablets
Related sources
Whatever its purpose, this single tablet shows that Babylonian mathematicians, working in base-60, had an arithmetic understanding of right triangles a millennium before Pythagoras was born.
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.