Position in chronology
SAA 10 114. Eclipse Hidden by Gods (ABL 0895) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king of the lands, my lord: your servant Bel-u[šezi]b. May Bel, Nabû and Šamaš bless the king, my lord! (3) (If) an eclipse occurs but is not seen in the capital, that eclipse has passed by. The capital is the city where the king resides. (5) Now there are clouds everywhere; we do not know whether the eclipse took place or not. (7) Let the lord of kings write to Assur and all the cities, to Babylon, to Nippur, to Uruk and Borsippa; maybe they observed it in these cities. The king should constantly listen. (r 1) Many signs of the eclipse came in Adar (XII) and in Nisan (I), and I…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P237880/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL KUR.KUR be-lí-ia ARAD-ka mdEN—ú-[še]-⸢zib⸣ / dEN dAG u dUTU a-na LUGAL be-li-ia lik-ru-ú-bu / AN.MI iš-šá-kin-ma ina URU BALA-e la in-na-mir / AN.MI BI i-te-ti-iq URU BALA URU šá LUGAL / ina ŠÀ-bi áš-bu en-na IM.DIRI-MEŠ ka-la-a-ma / ki-i AN.MI iš-ku-nu ù la iš-ku-nu / ul ni-di EN LUGAL-MEŠ a-na BAL.TIL.KI a-na URU ka-la-ma / a-na TIN.TIR.KI a-na EN.LÍL.KI a-na UNUG.KI / ù BÁR.SIPA.KI…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P237880.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237880). 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/P237880/.
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