Position in chronology
SAA 10 090. Why did the King Enthrone a Substitute? (ABL 0046) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Akkullanu. Goo[d health] to the king, my lord! May Nabû and [Marduk] bless the king, my lord! (5) Concerning the substitute image about which the king, [my lord], wrote to his servant: "It was sitting (on the throne) in the city of Akkad from the 14th of Tammuz (IV) till the 5th of Ab (V)" — for what purpose did they act in this way? And why did they enthrone it in Akkad? Had they done it in the city of your father where you yourself are living, it would have removed your evil! Why you? And why an evil of Babylonia? (14) Have they (perhaps) said to you…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333998/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL [be-lí-ía] / ARAD-ka mak-kul-la-nu lu-[u DI-mu] / a-na LUGAL EN-ía dAG u [dAMAR.UTU] / a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-ru-[bu] / ina UGU ṣa-lam pu-u-ḫi ša LUGAL [be-lí] / a-na LÚ.ARAD-šú iš-pur-a-ni ma-a TAv ŠÀ UD 14-KÁM / ša ITI.ŠU a-di UD 05-KÁM ša ITI.NE / ina ŠÀ URU.ak-ka-di it-tu-šib / pu-ut mi-i-ni ki-i an-ni-i e-pu-šú / ù a-ta-a ina ŠÀ URU.ak-ka-di ú-še-ši-bu / ⸢ina ŠÀ*⸣ É—AD-ka bé-et…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333998.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333998). 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/P333998/.
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