Position in chronology
SAA 08 503. Evening First of Mercury In Taurus (RMA 184) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the star of Marduk becomes visible at the beginning of the year: that year his furrow will prosper. — Mercury becomes visible in Nisan (I). (4) If a planet comes close to Aldebaran: the king of Elam will die. (6) If a strange star comes close to Enmešarra: people will spread; the land will become happy. (r 1) Mercury became visible in Taurus, it reached the Old Man. (r 4) If [a planet] becomes visible [in ...: rain]s and floods. (r 6) From [......].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237873/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 MUL—dAMAR.UTU ina SAG MU IGI-ir / MU BI AB.SÍN-šú SI.SÁ / MUL.UDU.IDIM.GUD.UD ina ITI.BARAG IGI-ma / 1 MUL.bi-ib-bu ana MUL.is—le-e TE / LUGAL NIM.MA.KI ÚŠ / 1 MUL.MÌN-ma ana MUL.EN.ME.ŠÁR.RA TE / UN-MEŠ DAGAL-MEŠ ŠÀ KUR DÙG-ab / MUL.UDU.IDIM.GUD.UD ina ŠÀ-bi MUL.GUD.AN.NA / [it]-tan-mar a-di MUL.ŠU.GI / [ik]-tal-du / 1 [MUL.UDU.IDIM ina x]+⸢x⸣ in-nam-mar / [A.AN]-MEŠ u A.KAL-MEŠ / šá m[x 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 P237873.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237873). 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/P237873/.
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.