Position in chronology
SAA 08 196. Full Moon on 14th Day (RMA 136I) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If on the 14th day the moon and sun are seen] together: reli[able speech]; the land will become happy; [the gods] will remember [Akkad] favorab[ly; joy among] the troops; [the king will become happy; the cattle] of Akkad will l[ie in the steppe] undisturbed. (r 1) [If the moon and] sun are in opposition: [the king] of the land will wid[en his un]derstanding. (r 3) — On the 14th [day] the moon will be seen [with] the sun. (r 4) [If] the moon and [sun are] in balance: relia[ble sp]eech will be placed [in the mouth] of people; [the king] of the land will make the [thr]one last long.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336452/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 UD 14-KÁM 30 u 20] it-ti a-ḫa-meš / [IGI-MEŠ KA GI].⸢NA⸣ ŠÀ KUR DÙG-ab / [DINGIR-MEŠ KUR—URI.KI ana] SIG₅ i-ḫa-sa-su / [ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi] ERIM-ni / [ŠÀ LUGAL DÙG MÁŠ.ANŠE] KUR—URI.KI / [ina EDIN] par-ga-niš / [i-rab]-bi-iṣ / [1 30 u] 20 šu-ta-tu-u / [LUGAL] KUR uz-[nu ú]-⸢rap-pa⸣-áš / [UD] 14-KÁM d⸢30⸣ [KI] dUTU IGI-ma / [1] 30 u [20 šit]-qu-lu / [at]-mu-u ki-[i-nu ina KA] UN-MEŠ GAR-an / [LUGAL] KUR GIŠ.[GU].ZA ú-lab-bar
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 P336452.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336452). 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/P336452/.
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.