Position in chronology
SAA 08 547. Saturn Stationary(?) (RMA 050) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [If Scorpius'] horns [at its appearance] are twisted: [the enemy will attack, but] fall in battle. (3) [If Scorpius'] horns carry radiance: [......] will conquer. (5) [Sat]urn (is equivalent to) [the Scal]es [......]. (r 1) [If the Scal]es' position is stable: there will be [recon]ciliation and peace in the land. (r 3) [The sign of the] appearance of [Sat]urn came about for the ki[ng my lord]. May [the king my lo]rd be ha[ppy; may the king my lord] be glad. (Rest destroyed)
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237307/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1 MUL.GÍR.TAB ina IGI.LAL-šú] SI-MEŠ-šú zu-ʾu-ú-ra / [LÚ.KÚR ZI-ma] ina GIŠ.TUKUL ŠUB-ut / [1 MUL.GÍR.TAB] SI-MEŠ-šú šá-⸢ru-ru na⸣-šá-a / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣-šú ŠU-su KUR-ád / [MUL.UDU.IDIM].SAG.UŠ [MUL.zi-ba-ni]-tum / [1 MUL.zi-ba]-ni-tum KI.GUB-su GI.NA / [taš-mu]-ú u SILIM-mu ina KUR GÁL-ši / [x x šá] ta-mar-ti [o] / [MUL.UDU].⸢IDIM⸣.SAG.UŠ a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ / [be-lí-ia] ⸢it⸣-tab-[ši] / [ŠÀ šá LUGAL be]-lí-<ia> lu ṭa-a-[bi] / [LUGAL be-lí] lu ḫa-a-[di] / [x x x 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 P237307.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237307). 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/P237307/.
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.