Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 10 081. Visibility of Stars (ABL 1449) [from astrologers]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334913

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning lost) (1) [...] the stars Sirius, Antares, Vega — these are the former ones which have already been visible. The planet Mercury has not yet appeared.

Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334913/

Why it matters

Transliteration

MUL.GAG.SI.SÁ / MUL.LI₉.SI₄ / li-si / MUL.be-lit—TI.LA / an-nu-ti / pa-ni-ú-ti / ša ina pa-ni-ti / in-na-me-ru-ni / MUL.UDU.IDIM.GUD.UD / ú-di-na / la in-na-mar

Scholarly note

Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334913.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334913). 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/P334913/.

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