Position in chronology
SAA 10 263. Burying Apotropaic Figures (ABL 0022) [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! (5) Concerning the prophylactic figurines about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, "Where will they be buried?" — it is said in the (ritual) tablet as follows: "You bury them at the outer gate." Now, with the king's permission, [......] (11) (Break) (r 2) Also tomorrow, after the king has gone out, they should bury them in front of the main room and the bedrooms, in places to be additionally specified by the king. Daytime or nighttime makes no difference; one may bury whenever one likes. (r 13) I, for my part, will bury (figurines) in the said way here.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333974/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ía / ARAD-ka m⸢dAMAR.UTU⸣—GAR—MU / ⸢lu⸣-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / [dPA] ⸢u⸣ dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ía / ⸢lik*-ru*⸣-bu ina UGU tim*-ra*-a-ni / ⸢ša* LUGAL*⸣ be*-lí iš*-pur-an-ni / ma*-[a a].a*-ka* i-tam-me-ru / ina* ṭup*-pi* ⸢ki*⸣-i* an-ni-i qa-bi / ma*-a* ⸢ina* KÁ*.DIL*⸣.ÀM* te-te-⸢mir⸣ / ⸢ú*⸣-ma*-a* šum*-[mu] LUGAL i-qab-bi / [x x] ⸢x x x x x⸣ / [x x x x x 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 P333974.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333974). 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/P333974/.
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