Position in chronology
SAA 08 327. Conjunction of Saturn and Mars (RMA 172) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon in Adar (XII) on the 14th or the 15th day is not seen together with the sun: destruction of Ur. (3) If the moon becomes late at an inappropriate time and does not become visible: attack of a ruling city; years of ... [...]. (5) If on the 16th day the moon and sun [are seen] together: the king of Subartu [will have no] rival. (This is) from a [.....] tablet. (8) If the moon is surrounded by a halo, and [Mars stands in it]: loss of cattle; in all lands [cultivated fields and] dates will not prosper [......] ... [......]. (Break) (r 1) [If a strange star] comes close to a planet:…
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P236880/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 ina ITI.ŠE UD 14-KÁM lu UD 15-KÁM KI 20 NU IGI / NÍG.ḪA.LAM.MA ŠEŠ.UNUG.KI / 1 30 ina la si-ma-ni-šú uḫ-ḫi-ram-ma NU IGI / ZI-e URU ŠÚ-tú / MU-MEŠ šá ⸢x⸣+[x x]-ru / 1 UD 16-KÁM 30 u 20 KI a-ḫa-[meš IGI-MEŠ] / LUGAL SU.BIR₄.KI GABA.[RI NU TUK] / šá ŠÀ-bi DUB-pi [x x x x x] / 1 30 TÙR NÍGIN-ma MUL.[ṣal-bat-a-nu ina ŠÀ-šú GUB] / ZÁḪ MÁŠ.ANŠE ina KUR DÙ.A.[BI me-re-šú] / ZÚ.LUM.MA NU SI.[SÁ x x…
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 P236880.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P236880). 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/P236880/.
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.