Position in chronology
SAA 08 506. New Moon on 1st Day (RMA 045) [lunar]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 8(1) [If] the moon [becomes visible] on the 1st day: reliable speech; the [land will become happy]. (3) If the moon's position at its appearance is stable: the gods will make a favorable decision about the land. (5) I.e., it becomes visible on the 1st day. (6) If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of [long] day[s. ......] (r 1) — [The 30th day] will complete [the length of the month. On the 14th day] (the moon) will be seen [with the sun]. (r 3) Elul (VI), Tishri (VII), [Marchesvan (VIII), Kislev (IX)], these four months the moon became visible on the 1st day. [That is good] for the king my [lord ......]. (r 7) The ki[ng ......] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 8 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[1] 30 ina UD 01-KÁM [IGI] / KA GI.NA ŠÀ [KUR DÙG-ab] / 1 30 ina IGI.LAL-šú KI.GUB-su* GI.[NA] / DINGIR-MEŠ GALGA KUR ana MÍ.SIG₅ GALGA-⸢MEŠ⸣ / šá ina UD 01-KÁM in-nam-ma-⸢ru⸣-[ma] / 1 UD ana mi-na-ti-šú GÍD.DA / BALA UD-⸢MEŠ⸣ [GÍD.DA-MEŠ] / [x x x x x x x x] GUB? / [mi-na-at ITI UD 30]-KÁM ú-šal-lam-[ma] / [UD 14-KÁM KI dUTU] ⸢in⸣-nam-mar [o] / ITI.KIN ITI.⸢DU₆⸣ [ITI.APIN ITI.GAN] / 04 ITI-MEŠ ⸢an⸣-[nu-ti] / 30! UD 01-KÁM IGI [du-un-qu] / šá LUGAL be-[lí-ia x x x x] / ⸢LUGAL⸣ [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 P237304.
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/P237304/..
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237304/.
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.