Position in chronology
SAA 08 400. Mars Approaches Venus [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If ......] attack of locusts. (2) [If ......] plenty for the people. (3) [If a planet] stands there [in E]lul (VI): rising of business, [abund]ance of grain. (5) [If M]ars comes close to the Old Man star: there w[ill be] a revolution [in the We]st[land, and brother] will kill [broth]er; [the emblems of the lands] will be overthro[wn; a secret of the land] will go to another [land; the gods will leave] it (and) will turn away from it. (r 4) [If ...] into Gemini [......] ... [......] ... [......] evil for the Westland, [good for the king] my [lord]. (r 9) [From Rašil] the older, [servant of the king].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237563/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 x x x x x] ⸢ZI⸣-ut BURU₅-ḪI.A / [1 x x x x x] nu-ḫuš UN-MEŠ / [1 MUL.UDU.IDIM ina ITI].⸢KIN⸣ GUB E₁₁ KI.LAM / [na]-⸢pa⸣-áš dNISABA / [MUL].⸢ṣal⸣-bat-a-nu ana MUL.ŠU.GI TE / [ina KUR]—⸢MAR⸣.TU.KI na-bal-kat-tum ⸢GÁL⸣-[ma] / [ŠEŠ] ⸢ŠEŠ⸣-šú GAZ-ak / [ŠU.NIR KUR uš]-tál-pa-[tu] / [MÍ.ŠEŠ KUR ana KUR ša]-ni-tú-ma GIN / [DINGIR-MEŠ-šú TAG₄-MEŠ]-šú ú-saḫ-ḫa-ru-⸢ši⸣ / [1 MUL.x x] ana ŠÀ-bi…
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 P237563.
Attribution
Image: BM 099230 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237563). 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/P237563/.
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.