Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 10 276. Discussing a Ritual with the King (ABL 0053) [from exorcists]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334005

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-nadin-šumi. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk greatly bless the king, my lord! (6) Concerning what the king, my lord, said to me: "Discuss it with Balasî", I did so and he said: (9) "He should sit down on the 15th and get up on the 22nd; on the 24th day the king should go down to the river and perform his ritual." (13) He also said: "Let us talk (about this) to the king (himself), and let the king hear what we have to say." He and I should (now) have an audience with the king; we shall instruct the king, our lord, how the ritual…

Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334005/

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mdAG—na-din—MU / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL be-lí-⸢ia⸣ / dAG u dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL be-lí-[ia] / a—dan-niš lik-ru-bu / ina UGU ša LUGAL be-lí iq-ban-ni / ma-a TA mba-<la>-si-i du-ub-bu / ad-du-bu-ub iq-ṭi-bi / ma-a UD 15-KÁM lu-ši-ib / ma-a UD 22-KÁM li-it-bi / ma-a UD 24-KÁM LUGAL ina UGU ÍD / ⸢lu*-ri*-id*⸣ dul-lu-šú le-pu-uš / ù iq-ṭi-bi ma-a / ina pa-an LUGAL ni-id-bu-ub…

Scholarly note

Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334005.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334005). 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/P334005/.

Related tablets

Related sources