Position in chronology
SAA 08 348. Full Moon on 14th Day (RMA 133) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If on the 14th day the moon and sun are seen together: reliable speech; the land will become happy; the gods will remember Akkad favorably; joy among the troops; the king will become happy; the cattle of Akkad will lie in the steppe undisturbed. (r 1) If the moon reaches the sun and follows it closely, and one horn meets the other: there will be truth in the land, the son will speak the truth with his father; the king will make his thro[ne last l]ong. (r 5) — On the 14th day their light [was seen together]. (r 6) May the king of all [lands be everlasting]! (r 7) From A[šaredu].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237861/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 UD 14-KÁM 30 u 20 / KI a-ḫa-meš IGI-MEŠ KA GI.NA / ŠÀ-bi KUR DÙG-ab DINGIR-MEŠ KUR—URI.KI / ana SIG₅-tim i-ḫa-as-sa-su / ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi ERIM-ni ŠÀ-bi LUGAL DÙG-ab / bu-lim KUR—URI.[KI] pár-ga-niš / i-na EDIN i-rab-bi-iṣ / 1 30 20 KUR-ma KI-šú it-te-ni-[tú] / SI SI i-dir ina KUR kit-tú GÁL-[ši] / DUMU KI <AD>-šú kit-ti i-ta-mi / LUGAL GIŠ.GU.[ZA-šú ú-lab]-bar / UD 14-KÁM UD.DA-su-⸢nu⸣ [KI a-ḫa-meš IGI]-ma / LUGAL KUR.⸢KUR⸣ [lu da-ri] / šá ma-[šá-ri-du]
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 P237861.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237861). 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/P237861/.
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.