Position in chronology
SAA 08 474. Full Moon on 13th day (RMA 085A) [lunar]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 8(1) If the moon [is seen] at an inappropriate ti[me: business will diminish]. (2) — On the 13th day one god [is seen with the other]. (3) If on the 13th day the moon and sun [are seen together]: unreliable speech; the ways [of the land will not prosper]. (5) To [the king] of all lands, my lord, [your servant Bel-ušezib. May] Be[l, Nabû, and] Marduk [bless] the king [my lord. May they grant] life for dist[ant] days, [......] world rule, [......] happiness and joy [......]! (10) The king of all lands, my lord, [......] of 1 talent of gold [......]; the face of the king my lord [......]. (r 3)…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 8 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
1 30 ina la mi-na-ti-[šú IGI.LAL KI.LAM TUR-ir] / UD 13-KÁM DINGIR KI [DINGIR IGI-ma] / 1 UD 13-KÁM 30 u 20 KI [a-ḫa-meš IGI-MEŠ] / KA NU GI.NA A.RÁ [KUR NU SI.SÁ] / a-[na LUGAL] KUR.KUR be-lí-⸢ia⸣ [ARAD-ka mdEN—ú-še-zib] / d⸢EN⸣ [dAG u d]AMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL [be-lí-ia lik-ru-bu] / ba-[la]-ṭi UD-MEŠ ru-qu-[u-ti x x x x] / kiš-šu-tú be-lu-ti ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / ṭu-ub ŠÀ-bi u ⸢ḫu-ud⸣ [ŠÀ-bi x x x x x]…
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 P238090.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Hermann Hunger, Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings (State Archives of Assyria, 8), 1992. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2016-17, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238090/..
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P238090/.
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.