Position in chronology
SAA 08 106. New Moon on 1st Day (RMA 036) [lunar]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 8(1) If the day [reaches its normal length]: a reign of long [days]. (3) Normal length of a month (means) it comple[tes] the 30th day. (4) [If the moon's] horns at its appearance are very pointed: [the king of Akkad w]ill weaken [the land] wherever he turns; wherever he turns he will rule [the lan]d. (r 1) "To be pointed" means to be adorned, said of horns. (r 2) Tammuz (IV) means Subartu. (r 3) From Akkullanu.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 8 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
1 UD-mu ana [mi-na-ti-šú e-ri-ik] / BALA [UD-MEŠ] ⸢GÍD-MEŠ⸣ / ⸢mi⸣-na-at ITI UD 30-KAM ú-šal-⸢lam⸣ / [1 30] ina IGI.LAL-šú SI-MEŠ-šú ud-du-da / [LUGAL URI.KI] e-ma IGI-MEŠ-šú šak-nu / [KUR] ⸢un⸣-na-áš : e-ma pa-nu-šú šak-nu / ⸢KUR⸣ i-be-el / e-de-du : ṣa-pa-ru ša qar-ni / ITI.ŠU KUR.SU.BIR₄.KI / ša mak-kul-la-ni
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 P336384.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Hermann Hunger, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (State Archives of Assyria, 8), 1992. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2016-17, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336384/..
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336384/.
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.