Position in chronology
SAA 08 080. Mars in Cancer, Thunder in Ab (RMA 256B) [planetary, weather]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If] Adad th[unders in] Ab (V) [and the day] becomes cloudy, it [rains: the harvest] of the land will not prosper [...]. (4) If Adad [shouts] on a day without clouds: there will [be] famine [in the land]. (6) If light[ning] flashes on a day without clouds: Adad will devast[ate]. (8) "A day without clouds" (means) Ab (V). "Adad will [devasta]te", as it says, (means) [...]. "[Adad will de]vastate" portends hot wea[ther]. (r 1) If a storm rises from the south: fall of the Westl[and]. (r 3) [If M]ar[s stands] in Cancer: [...] will hold [...] ...... (r 5) From Bal[asî].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336556/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 ina] ⸢ITI⸣.NE dIM ⸢GÙ⸣-[šú ŠUB-ma] / [UD-mu] i-ru-up šá-[mu-u ŠUR-nun] / [BURU₁₄] KUR NU SI.SÁ [x x x] / 1 ina UD la er-pi [d]IM [is-si] / SU.KÚ [ina KUR] GÁL-[ši] / 1 ina UD la er-⸢pi⸣ NIM.GÍR ib-⸢ri⸣-[iq] / dIM RA-[iṣ] / UD-mu la ⸢er⸣-pu ITI.⸢NE⸣ / d⸢IM⸣ [RA]-iṣ šá iq-bu-u-ni [x x] / d[IM] ⸢RA⸣-iṣ a-na ṣu-ur-[ḫi] / 1 me-ḫi-[i] ⸢IM⸣.U₁₈.LU it-[bi] / ŠUB-tim KUR—⸢MAR⸣.[TU] / [1] ⸢MUL⸣.ṣal-bat-[a-nu] ina ŠÀ MUL.AL.⸢LUL⸣ [GUB] / [x x]-šú ú-kal ⸢x⸣+[x x]+⸢x⸣-ub-tú? / ša mba-⸢la⸣-[si-i]
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 P336556.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336556). 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/P336556/.
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.