Position in chronology
SAA 08 495. Earthquake (RMA 266A) [weather]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If in Shebat (XI)] there is an earthquake: [the furrow] will bring its [yiel]d, variant: will reduce (it); there will be [campai]gns of the enemy. (4) [If in Shebat (XI) the earth] quakes: the enemy will take up residence in the ruler's palace; [the ruler] will be humiliated [in the land] of his enemy. (6) [If the earth] quakes at night: worry for the land, [variant: abando]ning of the land. (r 1) An earthquake portends revolution. (r 2) [...] this [sig]n indicates attack of the enemy. Let [the king my lord] strengthen the guard everywhere (lit. right and left) where [...] is present. [Maybe an] enemy will come into being. (r 6) [From Šapiku] of Borsippa.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237899/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 ina ITI.ZÍZ] ri-i-bu i-ru-ub / [AB.SÍN GÚ].⸢UN⸣-sà ÍL KI.MIN LÁ-ṭa / [ger]-⸢ret⸣ KÚR GÁL-MEŠ / [1 ina ITI.ZÍZ KI] i-ru-ub ina É.GAL NUN KÚR TUŠ-ab / [NUN ina KUR] ⸢KÚR⸣-šú i-qal-lil / [1 KI ina] MI i-nu-uš na-zaq KUR / [KI.MIN] ⸢ŠUB⸣-e KUR / [1] ri-i-bu ana na-bal-kat-ti / [x x x] ⸢GISKIM⸣ an-nit šá ZI-ib KÚR ši-i / [LUGAL be-lí] EN.NUN 15 u 150 ⸢a?⸣-šar / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ qer-bu li-dan?-nin* / [mìn-de-ma] ⸢KÚR⸣ ib-ba-áš-ši / [šá mšá-pi-ku] DUMU BÁR.SIPA.KI
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 P237899.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237899). 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/P237899/.
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.