Position in chronology
SAA 10 010. Earthquake in Nineveh (ABL 0034) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Issar-šumu-ereš. Good health to the king, [my lo]rd! [May] Nabû and Marduk [bless] the king, my lord! (5) As to what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "What apotropaic ritual is there?" — there is the apotropaic ritual against earthquake, and it should be performed; [...] should enter the Review Palace. The following (is) [what] is said abo[ut the matter] in the tablet: (11) [If ......, ...] will stay ... (12) [If ......], in that year the prince [......] (Break) (r 2) [... ever]ybody has now [...] (r 3) [...]ed, picked up [...], and ...... (r 5) The king, my lord, should not be worried about it. (r 7) Now it has again quaked in the daytime: (r 8) If the earth trembles in the daytime, dispersal of the land.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333986/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-na LUGAL EN*-[ia] / ARAD-ka m15—MU—[KAM-eš] / lu šul-mu a-na LUGAL ⸢EN-ia*⸣ / dAG dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ia [lik]-ru*-[bu] / ša LUGAL be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / ma-a ⸢mi*⸣-nu* i*-ba-áš-ši ⸢NAM*⸣.BÚR*.⸢BI*⸣ / NAM*.⸢BÚR*.BI*⸣ ḪUL ri*-⸢i*-bi*⸣ ba-⸢ši*⸣ / le*-⸢e*⸣-[pu]-šú* ⸢x⸣+[x x] a-na É*.GAL*—ma*-šar*-⸢te*⸣ / le*-ru*-⸢ub*⸣ ina* ṭup*-pi* an-ni-tú / [ši-i ša ina] ⸢UGU*⸣ qa*-bu-u-ni / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333986.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333986). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333986/.
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