Position in chronology
SAA 10 350. Terminating the Reign of the Substitute King (ABL 1014) [miscellaneous]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) Con[cerning the su]bstitute king about whom [the king, my lord, wrote to me]: "He should sit for 100 days" — (2) [now then] he has completed the 100 days, and [his] ki[ngship is finished. As the king, my lord, wr[ote to me I am w]aiting [for the ...]; the king, my lord, should k[now] (this). (6) [...] the blow [......] (7) [...] at the left, Aššur-ahu-[...] (8) [... ov]er there should be good [...] (9) [...] have been deleted. As soon as [......], it will be taken care of [within] 10 days. The king, my lord [should know this]. (11) [Ma]rs, which previously was…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334675/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ina [UGU] ⸢LUGAL*⸣ pu-ḫi ša [MAN be-lí iš-pur-an-ni] / ma-a 01-me UD-me lu-ši-⸢ib⸣ [ú-ma-a an-nu-rig] / [01]-⸢me⸣ UD-me un-tal-li ⸢LUGAL⸣-[us-su ga-am-rat] / [ki]-⸢i⸣ ša MAN be-lí iš-pur-[an-ni pa-an x x] / [a]-⸢dag⸣-gal MAN be-lí lu-u ⸢ú⸣-[di x x x x] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ mi-iḫ-ṣu šu-u [x x x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ ša 150* maš-šur*—⸢PAB⸣—[x x x] / [x x] ⸢ša⸣ ma-ka lu-u DÙG.GA [x x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ pa-áš-šú…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334675.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334675). 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/P334675/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Whatever its purpose, this single tablet shows that Babylonian mathematicians, working in base-60, had an arithmetic understanding of right triangles a millennium before Pythagoras was born.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.