Position in chronology
SAA 10 120. Cow Gives Birth to Lion (CT 54 512) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed or too fragmentary for translation) (11) When [...] appeared [...], I said to him: "If you [kill and] eat it, I shall notify the king." (r 2) [Now then] Sin-ereš has struck down the lion which the cow gave birth to and eaten it. None of his associates [knows about it]; he has killed the farmer and the scribe, saying: "Maybe [...] will give you on my behalf; [they may] testify for me in the presence of the king." (r 6) Now then the servants of Sin-ereš who saw it with their own eyes are standing by; let them testify and speak to the king. (r 8) [A ri]tual, be it [by] an exorcist of Sin-ereš [......] (Break) (e. 1) [...] does not [......] (e. 2) [... o]f Nabû-aha-ereš [......] (e. 3) Perhaps [......]
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P237278/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / me [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢a⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x-da⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢šú⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x-ḫar?-šú⸣ / [x x x x x x x] ⸢ši? x x x x-šú-nu⸣ / [x 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 P237278.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237278). 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/P237278/.
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