Position in chronology
SAA 08 430. Moon in Scorpius (RMA 213) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If] Scorpius comes close to the front of the moon and stands there: the reign of the king will become long; an enemy will attack, but his fall will take place. (r 1) Aššur, Šamaš, and Marduk have granted to the king my lord a stable throne forever, for long days. (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/P336516/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1] MUL.GÍR.TAB / ana IGI 30 TE-ma GUB-iz / BALA LUGAL GÍD.DA-ik / LÚ.KÚR ZI-am-ma / ŠUB-ta-šú GAR-an / daš-šur dUTU u dAMAR.UTU / GIŠ.GU.ZA šá ki-na-a-ti / a-na da-riš a-na UD-MEŠ / GÍD.DA-MEŠ a-na LUGAL / [EN]-ia it-tan-nu / šá mdAG—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 P336516.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336516). 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/P336516/.
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.