Position in chronology
SAA 10 219. Rituals during the Reign of the Substitute King (CT 53 049) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Adad-šumu-uṣur. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless] the king, [my] lord! (5) The charge [of the] re[ar palace is well]. (7) [Concerning the s]ubstitute [king] about whom the king, [my lord, wrote] to me: "I was told [that he should sit (on the throne) until the] 8th of Elul (VI); is it ... that we shall perform (the ritual) Bīt salā' mê in the month Tishri (VII)?" — when a substitute king was sitting in the month Marchesvan (VIII), in Sivan (III) [...] (Break) (r 2) We are [n]ow [waiting for] a [solar] eclipse; [if] it passes by, the king, my lord, should act in t[his way]. (r 5) We will see [...] (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/P313464/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka mdIM—MU—PAB] / [lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / [dAG dAMAR.UTU a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-⸢lí⸣-[ia] / [lik-ru-bu DI-mu] ⸢a⸣-na pi-qit-te / [ša É—ku-tal]-li / [ina UGU LUGAL]—⸢pu⸣-u-ḫi ša LUGAL / [be-lí iš-pur]-⸢an⸣-ni ma-a iq-ṭi-bu-ni / [ma-a a-du UD] ⸢08?⸣-KÁM šá ITI.KIN / [lu-šib] ma-a bi-is šá ITI.DU₆ / É—sa-la—me-e né-pa-šu-u-ni / a-ki ina ITI.APIN LUGAL—pu-u-ḫi /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P313464.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313464). 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/P313464/.
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