Position in chronology
SAA 08 088. Full Moon on 12th Day (RMA 119) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon is seen at an inappropriate time: business will diminish. (3) — On the 12th day it was seen with the sun. (4) If the moon and sun are seen together not at the normal time: a strong enemy will oppress the land; the king of Akkad will bring about the downfall of his enemy. (8) — [On the 1]2th [day] it was seen with the sun. (r 1) [If the moon] is seen on the 12th day: bad for Akkad, it is [go]od for Elam and the Westland; (r 3) This is bad for Akkad. (r 4) From Balasî.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336439/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 ina la si-ma-ni-šú IGI / KI.LAM TUR-⸢ir⸣ / UD 12-KÁM it-ti dUTU IGI-ma / 1 ina la me-na-ti-šú-nu d30 u dUTU / it-ti a-ḫa-meš IGI-MEŠ / LÚ.KÚR dan-nu KUR i-se-ʾi / LUGAL URI.KI ŠUB-ta LÚ.KÚR-šú GAR-an / [UD] ⸢12⸣-KÁM it-ti dUTU IGI-ma / [1 30] ⸢UD⸣ 12-KÁM IGI-ma ḪUL KUR—URI.KI / ⸢SIG₅⸣ NIM.MA.KI KUR.a-mur-ri-i / ḪUL šá KUR—URI.KI šu-ú / 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 P336439.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336439). 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/P336439/.
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.