Position in chronology
SAA 08 371. Mercury Sighted in Scorpius (RMA 151) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon and sun are in opposition: the king of the land will widen his understanding. — On the 14th day each month one god will be seen with the other. (4) In Tishri (VII), Marchesvan (VIII), and Kislev (IX), three months in a row, (the moon and sun) were seen for good fortune and length of days of the king my lord. (7) If the moon's horns at its appearance are very dark: disbanding of the fortified outposts, retiring of the guards; there will be reconciliation and peace in the land. — On the 14th day one god is seen with the other. (11) If the moon is seen on the 14th day: good for…
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P236976/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 u dUTU šu-ta-tu-ú / LUGAL KUR uz-nu ú-rap-pa-áš / UD 14-KÁM ITI-us-su DINGIR KI DINGIR IGI-ma / ITI.DU₆ ITI.APIN u ITI.GAN 03 ITI-ME / EGIR a-ḫa-meš ana SIG₅ u a-rak UD-ME / šá LUGAL be-lí-ía it-tan-ma-ru / 1 30 ina IGI.LAL-šú SI-MEŠ-šú tur-ru-ka / DU₈ bi-ra-a-ti a-rad EN.NUN-ME / taš-mu-ú u SILIM-mu ina KUR GÁL / UD 14-KÁM DINGIR KI DINGIR IGI-ma / 1 30 UD 14-KÁM IGI-ma SIG₅ KUR—URI.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 P236976.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P236976). 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/P236976/.
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.