Position in chronology
SAA 08 164. Auspicious Days in Iyyar [calendrical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Iyyar (I]I), the 2nd day: [favorable]. (2) The 6th day: [let him take] a wif[e, he will live to ol]d age. (3) The 8th day: an important person will be favorable. (4) The 10th day: at court, favorable. (5) The 12th day: in the street, favorable. (6) The 15th day: perfect seed. (7) The 16th day: joy of heart. (8) The 18th day: convert the cleaned (barley). (Break) (r 9) [From] Aššur-naṣir.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336662/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢ITI.GUD⸣ UD 02-KAM [AB.ŠE.GE.DA] / UD 06-KAM ⸢DAM⸣ [TUK.TUK LIBIR].⸢RA⸣ / UD 08-KAM IDIM AB.ŠE.GE.DA / UD 10-KAM ina de-e-ni ma-gir / UD 12-KAM ina su-ú-qí ma-gir / UD 15-KAM ŠE.NUMUN šuk-lu-ul / UD 16-KAM ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi / UD 18-KAM za-ku-tú pu-šur / [x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ x / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / UD [x x x x x x x x] / [ša] maš-šur—PAB-ir [o]
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 P336662.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336662). 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/P336662/.
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.