Position in chronology
SAA 08 427. Full Moon on 14th Day (RMA 136H) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If on the 14th day the moon a]nd sun are seen together: [reliable speech]; the land will become happy; the gods will remember Akkad [favorably]; the cattle of Akkad will lie [in the st]eppe [undisturbed; the harvest-time grass will last until] winter, [......]. (Break) (r 1) [If the moon and sun are in ba]lance: reliable speech will be placed [in the mouth of people]; the foundation of the king's throne will become stable. (r 3) [If the moon and sun are] in opposition: [the king of the land] will widen his [under]standing; there will be truth [in the land]. (r 6) [From] Nabû-iqbi.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237007/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 UD 14-KÁM 30 u] 20 KI a-ḫa-meš IGI-MEŠ / [KA GI.NA ŠÀ] KUR DÙG-ab DINGIR-MEŠ KUR—URI.KI / [ana SIG₅ i]-ḫa-sa-su bu-lum KUR—URI.KI / [par-ga-niš ina] ⸢EDIN⸣ i-rab-bi-ṣu / [di-iš BURU₁₄ ana] EN.TE.[NA x x] / [1 30 u 20 šit-qu]-⸢lu at-mu-ú⸣ ki-i-nu / [ina KA UN-MEŠ] GAR-an LUGAL SUḪUŠ AŠ.TE-šú GIN-an / [1 30 u 20 šu]-ta-tu-ú / [LUGAL KUR uz]-nu DAGAL-áš / [ina KUR kit]-ti GÁL-ši / [šá m]dAG—iq-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 P237007.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237007). 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/P237007/.
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.