Position in chronology
SAA 08 546. (no title) (RMA 237A) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [......] ... [......] well-being of the Westland [......]. (r 4) [If] the Yoke star [is turned] towards sun[set] when it comes out, (if) the west wind [rises and] turns towards the south: on [the 10th day] of Elul (VI) a destruct[ion of the land will take place]. (r 6) [If] the Yoke star is turned towards sunrise when it comes out and [looks] at the front of [the sky], and no wind blows: there will be fa[min]e; [the dynasty will end in catastrophe].
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P240199/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x] ⸢ma⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x x] / MI DAG? ⸢MI⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x x] / DI ⸢MAR⸣.KI [x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [1] ⸢MUL⸣.ŠUDUN ina È-šú ana dUTU.[ŠÚ.A IGI-šú GAR-nu IM].MAR.TU [ZI-ma] / ana IM.U₁₈.LU is-ḫur ina ITI.KIN ⸢UD⸣ [10-KAM] ⸢šal⸣-pú-⸢ti⸣ [KUR GAR-an] / [1 MUL].ŠUDUN ina È-šú ana dUTU.TU.TU IGI-šú GAR-nu IGI [AN-e] / [IGI.BAR-ma] ⸢TU₁₅⸣ mim-ma la i-zi-qa ⸢SU.KÚ⸣ GÁL-⸢ši⸣ [BALA NAM.GILIM.MA]
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 P240199.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240199). 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/P240199/.
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.