Position in chronology
SAA 08 207. Observations of the Moon (ABL 1408) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) (Beginning destroyed) (2) [On the 29th day], a possible solar eclipse. (3) [In the month ..., on the 1st day], the moon became visible. (4) [... The night] of the 11th day [was cloudy; in the] morning [watch] the moon came out. (6) [In the daytime of] the 11th day there was much [...], the moon set. (8) [The ni]ght of the 12th day [was cloudy; in] the morning [watch] the moon came out. (r 1) [The daytime of the 1]2th day was cloudy, the setting of the moon was not visible. (r 2) The night of the 13th day [was cloudy, in] the morning [watch] the moon came out. (r 4) [The daytime of the…
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P334889/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x] u ni ri / [UD 29?-KÁM] AN.MI dUTU GAR-an / [ITI.x UD 01?]-KÁM 30 IGI / [x x x MI] šá UD 11-KÁM / [IM.DIRI EN.NUN—UD].ZAL 30 È / [x x UD-mu šá] UD 11-KÁM / [x x x x]-i ma-ʾa-ad 30 ŠÚ / [x x x x] ⸢MI*⸣ šá UD 12-KÁM / [IM.DIRI EN.NUN]—UD.ZAL 30 È / [UD-mu šá UD] ⸢12⸣-KÁM IM.DIRI GAR ŠÚ-u šá 30 NU IGI / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ MI šá UD 13-KÁM / [IM.DIRI EN.NUN]—UD.ZAL 30 È / [UD-mu šá UD] ⸢13⸣…
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 P334889.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334889). 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/P334889/.
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.