Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 08 486. Evening First of Mercury in Pleiades (RMA 226) [planetary]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P236972

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) [Me]rcury became visible in the west [wit]h the Pleiades. It will keep getting higher [...] into the Old Man: rain and flood. (6) [If] the star of Marduk [becomes visible in] the beginning of the ye[ar]: in this [ye]ar his furrow will pro[sper]. (8) From Nadinu.

Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P236972/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[MUL].⸢UDU⸣.IDIM.GUD.UD ina dUTU.ŠÚ.A / [it]-⸢ti⸣ MUL.MUL it-tan-mar / a-na ŠÀ-bi MUL.ŠU.GI [x x x] / iš-ta-naq-qa-a / A.AN u A.KAL / [1] MUL—dAMAR.UTU [ina] SAG ⸢MU⸣ [IGI] / ⸢MU⸣ BI AB.SÍN-šú ⸢SI⸣.[SÁ] / šá mna-di-nu

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 P236972.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P236972). 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/P236972/.

Related tablets

Related sources