Position in chronology
SAA 10 253. Postponing New Year’s Festival in Babylon (ABL 0956) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Marduk-šakin-šumi. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! May Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, Bel, Nabu, Nergal, Ištar of Nineveh and Ištar of Arbela] call [vigour, heal]th, [happiness], physical [well-being and lasting da]ys [for the king, my lord]! May they sate [the ki]ng, my lord, with [old age] and fullness of life! (15) [Concerni]ng the intercalation [of] the year [about which the k]ing said as follows: "Let us add an intercalary Elul (VI)!" — the matter is (now) settled. [May the kin]g, my lord, live forever on account…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334645/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU] / [lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía] / [dAG ù dAMAR.UTU] / [a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-ru-bu] / [aš-šur d30 dUTU dEN dPA] / [dU.GUR d15 ša NINA.KI] / [d15 ša URU.arba]-⸢ìl⸣ / [ba-lá-ṭu šá-la]-⸢mu⸣ / [ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi ṭu-ub] UZU / [ù du-ur UD]-me / [a-na LUGAL EN]-⸢ía* li*⸣-bi-u / [ši-bu-tú] lit-tu-tú / [a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ía lu-šab-bi-u / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ da-re-e /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334645.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334645). 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/P334645/.
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