Position in chronology
SAA 10 298. Rituals for Obtaining Good Dreams (ABL 0450) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-naṣir. May [Nabû and Marduk greatly] bless [the king, my lord]! (5) Aššur-mukin-[pa]lu'a is very well; the king, my lord, can be happy. (8) We have begun to perform the rites of the month Elul (VI): "On the 16th you set a table made of tamarisk wood before Sin. At the head of the bed you place a censer of juniper for (the dream god) Zaqiqu. You wash his hands and feet with siderites and cassia. You bind lumps of salt, cassia, juniper, and lumps (taken) from the outer door to the hem of his garment." (r 2) By the gods of the king, my lord, the baby has not been with Aššur-mukin-palu'a. Until Aššur, Bel and Nabû, your gods, reckoned him among the (grown-up) people, we did not leave a day or month without rituals and rites.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334313/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka mdAG—PAB-ir] / [dAG ù dAMAR.UTU] / [a-na LUGAL EN-ia a—dan-niš] / lik*-ru*-bu ⸢DI⸣-[mu a]—⸢dan⸣-[niš] / a-na maš-šur—mu-kin[in]—⸢BALA⸣-u-a / ŠÀ-bi ša LUGAL EN-ia lu [ṭa]-ab-šú / né-pe-ši ša ITI.KIN UD 16-KÁM / GIŠ.BANŠUR bi-ni ana IGI d30 tar-kás / NÍG.NA ŠEM.LI a-na dZA.QAR / ina SAG GIŠ.NÁ GAR-an / ina Ú.áp-ru-šá qul-ku-la-ni / ŠU.2-šú u GÌR.2-šú LUḪ-si /…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334313.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334313). 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/P334313/.
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