Position in chronology
SAA 08 001. Thunder in Ab, King Ill (RMA 257) [weather]
About this tablet
A report sent to an Assyrian king (likely Esarhaddon, 7th century BCE) by one of his court scholars, combining astrology-style omen quotations with personal reassurance. Thunder had been heard in the month of Ab, and the scholar cites the standard omens from the series Enūma Anu Enlil about what such thunder portends. He then pivots to the king's real anxiety — the king is unwell — and soothes him: it is only a seasonal sickness, everyone who has it recovers, and a god-fearing king who prays day and night has nothing to fear. A vivid glimpse of how celestial divination and royal health care intertwined at the Neo-Assyrian court.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Here is what the omens say: if Adad, the storm-god, thunders in the month of Ab while the sky clouds over, rain falls and lightning flashes, then the water supply at its sources will run low. And if Adad thunders on a completely clear day, expect gloom — or, by another reading, famine — in the land. Now, about Your Majesty's poor health: please don't worry about it. It's just the seasonal illness going around; everyone who catches it recovers. Besides, a king who fears the gods as you do, praying to them day and night... (the rest of the letter is lost here).
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(1) If in Ab (month V) Adad thunders, the day becomes cloudy, it rains, (and) lightning flashes: the waters will decrease at the source. (4) If Adad shouts on a cloudless day: there will be darkness — variant: famine — in the land. (6) Concerning this ill health, the king, my lord, should not worry (lit. 'should not speak from his heart'). (8) It is a disease of the season; all the people who are sick will get well. (11) Moreover, the king, my lord, who is one who reveres the gods — day and night he prays to the gods … (The text continues but the remainder is not preserved in the given transliteration.)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Engine notes
read from photo5 uncertain terms ↓
- IDIM — Can mean 'underground spring,' 'source,' or 'ground water'; context favors 'spring/cistern' but some translate as 'reservoir.' Sign visible in photo but resolution too low to confirm determinative.
- da-um-ma-tu KI.MIN — 'KI.MIN' is a scribal abbreviation meaning 'ditto / same as above' — the omen repetition formula. 'da-um-ma-tu' may refer to darkness/gloom or a specific meteorological phenomenon; reading is conventional but debated.
- la ṭu-ub UZU — Literally 'non-goodness of flesh/body,' i.e., an unfavorable omen sign or bodily ailment; the phrase is a standard technical term in omen apodoses but the precise nuance (disease omen vs. inauspicious sign) is contextually ambiguous.
- ú-ṣal-lu-u-ni — From ṣalālu, 'to pray, intercede, lie down (in prayer)'; the form here is a durative subordinate clause. Some editors render 'pray for him,' others 'prostrate themselves for him.'
- mur-ṣu MU.AN.NA šu-ú — 'This illness (belongs to) that year' — a reassurance that the sickness is a passing annual phenomenon, not a permanent calamity. 'MU.AN.NA' is the logogram for šattu, 'year.'
Reasoning ↓
Photo examined: the tablet is a small, fired clay Neo-Assyrian lens-shaped or rectangular tablet photographed in multiple orientations (obverse, reverse, edges, and two side views with a small label tag reading '81-7-27, 19'). The reddish-brown clay is in generally fair condition; wedge impressions are clearly visible though somewhat shallow and the photo resolution limits precise sign-by-sign confirmation. I can broadly confirm the columnar layout and density of signs matching the transliteration. The opening sign cluster on the obverse face is consistent with 'ina ITI.NE' (month-name wedges visible), and I can see what appear to be sign groups consistent with 'dIM' (Adad determinative + name) recurring, and 'LUGAL be-lí' patterns in the lower registers. Several lines on the reverse and edges are harder to confirm due to shallow impressions and oblique lighting. The transliteration follows SAA 08 001 (State Archives of Assyria, vol. 8, celestial omen reports), a well-known astrological report from a scholar to the Neo-Assyrian king interpreting a thunder omen in Month Ab; the scholarly tradition (Hunger, SAA 8, 1992) is well established. The phrase 'gab-bu šulmu' ('all is well/peace for all') is a standard reassurance formula in these letters.
Generated by Claude Sonnet 4.6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v2 · May 11, 2026 · 2681 in / 945 out tokens
Transliteration
1 ina ITI.NE dIM GÙ-šú ŠUB-ma / UD ŠÚ AN ŠUR-nun NIM.GÍR ib-ríq / A-MEŠ ina IDIM LÁ-MEŠ / 1 ina UD la er-pí dIM is-si / da-um-ma-tu KI.MIN SU.KÚ ina KUR GÁL / ina UGU la ṭu-ub UZU an-ni-i / LUGAL be-lí TAv ŠÀ-bi-šú la i-da-bu-ub / mur-ṣu MU.AN.NA šu-ú / UN-MEŠ am—mar mar-ṣu-u-ni / gab-bu šul-mu / tu-ra-ma LUGAL be-lí / ša pa-lìḫ DINGIR-MEŠ šu-tu-u-ni / UD-mu ù mu-šú DINGIR-MEŠ ú-ṣal-lu-u-ni /…
Scholarly note
Astrological report from a court scholar to an Assyrian king, edited by Hermann Hunger (SAA 8, 1992). Celestial and meteorological observation correlated with omens. ORACC text P336558.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336558). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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