Position in chronology
SAA 08 501. Full Moon on 14th Day, Saturn in Lunar Halo (RMA 136S) [planetary, lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [If the moon and sun] are in opposition: the king [of the land will widen his understanding ...]. (2) I.e., on the 14th day the moon is seen [with the sun]. (4) [If a sun disk stands] above the moon, vari[ant: below the moon]: the foundation of the throne of the land's [king will be stable; the king of the land] will stand in his truth. (7) — On the 14th day [the sun stands] with the moon. (8) [If the sun] stands in the halo of the moon: [in all lands they will speak the truth, and the son [will speak the truth] with his father. (Break) (r 1) Kislev (IX), 14th day, year 1, Sargon king of Babylon.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P240205/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 30 u 20] šu-ta-tu-ú LUGAL [KUR uz-na DAGAL-áš] / [x x x] šá? UD 14-KÁM d*30? / [KI dUTU] IGI-mar-[ma] / [1 AŠ.ME] UGU 30 KI.[MIN KI.TA 30 GUB] / [LUGAL] KUR SUḪUŠ AŠ.TE-[šú GI.NA LUGAL KUR] / [ina] kit-ti-šú GUB-[az] / [dUTU] UD 14-KÁM KI 30 [GUB-ma] / [1 20 ina] TÙR 30 GUB [ina KUR DÙ.A.BI kit-tú i-ta-mu-u] / ù DUMU KI [AD-šú kit-ti i-ta-mi] / ⸢ITI.GAN?⸣ UD ⸢14⸣-KÁM MU 01-KÁM [o] / LUGAL—GI.NA LUGAL TIN.TIR.KI [o]
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 P240205.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240205). 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/P240205/.
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.