Position in chronology
SAA 08 290. New Moon on 1st Day (RMA 011) [lunar]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 8(1) If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of long days. (3) — The 30th day completes the measure of the month. (4) If the moon becomes visible on the 1st day: reliable speech; [the land] will become happy. (6) If the moon at its appearance [wears a crown]: constantly the harvest of the land will prosper; [the land will dwell] as if in pastures near the city; the king [will re]ach the highest rank. (r 2) This is good for the king my lord. (r 3) From Nabû-iqiša of Borsippa.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 8 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
1 UD ana ŠID-MEŠ-šú GÍD.⸢DA⸣ / BALA UD-MEŠ GÍD.DA-MEŠ / mi-na-at ITI UD 30-KÁM ú-šal-⸢lam⸣-[ma] / 1 30 UD 01-KÁM IGI-ir / KA GI.NA [ŠÀ KUR] DÙG-ab / 1 30 ina IGI.LAL-⸢šú⸣ [AGA a-pir] ⸢ka⸣-a.a-⸢nam*⸣-ma / BURU₁₄ KUR SI.⸢SÁ⸣ [KUR] ⸢a*-bur*-riš*⸣ [TUŠ-ab] / LUGAL a-šá-ri-du-tú [DU]-ak / SIG₅ šá LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ šu-ú / šá mdAG—BA-šá DUMU ⸢BÁR⸣.SIPA.KI
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 P237871.
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/P237871/..
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237871/.
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.