Position in chronology
SAA 10 019. Dates of the Festival of Tammuz (ABL 1097) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning lost) (2) are empty [......] (3) are not there [......] (4) On the 26th the god [...], on the 27th the god [...], on the 28th the god Ta[mmuz ...]. (7) On the morning of the 26th they introduce [...] and the dis[play] takes place; on the 2[7th and the 28th they do] likewise. This is for the city of Assur. (r 1) On the 26th: the wailing; on the 27th: the redemption; on the 28th: Tammuz. This is the way the display takes place in Nineveh. (r 4) In Calah, the display (takes place) on the 27th and the 28th in like manner. (r 6) In [Arbe]la, the displays [take place] on the 27th, the 28th and the 2[9th]. (Remainder lost)
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334734/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢ŠÀ*⸣-bu [x x x x x x x] / ra-a-qu ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / la-áš-šú ina ŠÀ-⸢bi⸣ [x x x x] / UD 26-KÁM d[x x x x x] / UD 27-KÁM ⸢d⸣[x x x x x] / UD 28-KÁM d⸢DUMU⸣.[ZI x x x x] / UD 26-KÁM šá—še-ra-a-⸢ti⸣ [x x x] / ú-še-ru-bu tak-[lim-tú] / ú-kal-lu-mu UD ⸢27⸣-[KÁM UD 28-KÁM] / ki-i an-nim-[ma ep-pu-šú] / an-ni-u šá URU.ŠÀ-bi—⸢URU⸣ / UD 26-KÁM kil-lum UD 27-KÁM pa-šá-⸢ru*⸣ / UD 28*-KÁM dDUMU.ZI ki-i…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334734.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334734). 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/P334734/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
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.