Position in chronology
SAA 08 168. Mars and Saturn in Lunar Halo on Full Moon Day (RMA 099) [planetary, lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If [on the 16th] day [the moon and sun] are seen [together: one king] will send [hostile messages to another]; the king will be shut up [in his palace for the length of a month]; the step [of the enemy] will be set [towards] his [land]; the enemy will march around [victoriously in his land]. (6) If the moon is surrounded by a halo and the sun stands in the halo of the moon: they will speak the truth in all lands; the son will speak the truth with his father; universal peace. (10) If the moon is surrounded by a halo and Mars stands in it: loss of cattle in all lands; the date plantation…
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336426/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 UD [16-KÁM 30 u 20 KI a-ḫa-meš] IGI-MEŠ / [LUGAL ana LUGAL MÍ.KÚR] KIN / LUGAL [ina É.GAL-šú ana mi-na-at ITI] ú-ta-sar / GÌR.2 ⸢LÚ⸣.[KÚR ana KUR]-šú GAR-an / LÚ.KÚR [ina KUR-šú šal-ṭa-niš] DU.DU-ak / 1 30 TÙR NÍGIN-ma dUTU ina ŠÀ TÙR 30 GUB-iz / ina KUR DÙ.A.BI kit-tú i-ta-mu-u / DUMU KI AD-šú kit-tú i-ta-ma / sa-li-im kiš-šá-ti / 1 30 TÙR NÍGIN-ma dṣal-bat-a-nu ina ŠÀ-šú GUB / ZÁḪ MÁŠ.ANŠE…
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 P336426.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336426). 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/P336426/.
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.