Position in chronology
SAA 10 296. Prophylactic Rituals (ABL 0977+) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To] the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-naṣir. May Nabû and Marduk very greatly bless the king, my lord! (5) Aššur-mukin-paleya is doing very, very well; Aššur-šarrani-[muballis]su is doing very, very well. The king, my lord, [can be glad]. (10) [Concerning] the rites about which the ki[ng, my lord], wrote to us, in Kislev (IX) we performed "To keep ma[laria], plague and pestilence away from a man's home"; [in Teb]et (X) we performed "To keep disease and malaria away from a man's home," and numerous counterspells; in Shebat (XI) we performed 'hand-lifting' prayers, an apotropaic ritual…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334655/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL [be]-lí-⸢ia⸣ / ARAD-ka mdAG—PAB-[ir] / dAG u dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ia / a—dan-niš a—dan-niš lik-ru-bu / DI-mu a—dan-niš a—dan-niš / a-na maš-šur—mu-kin—BALA-MEŠ-ia / DI-mu a—dan-niš a—dan-niš / a-na maš-šur—LUGAL-a-ni—[TI.LA].BI / ŠÀ-bi ša LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ [lu ṭa-ab-šú] / [ina UGU] né-pe-ši ša ⸢LUGAL⸣ [be-lí] / iš-pur-an-na-ši-ni ⸢di⸣-[ʾu] / šip-ṭu mu-ta-nu ana É ⸢LÚ⸣ [NU TE-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 P334655.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334655). 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/P334655/.
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