Position in chronology
SAA 16 054. Silver for the Merchants (SAAB 04 5)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(1) Concerning the merchan[ts] about whom my lord said: "I have not sent their money, (for) there is no silver" — I have heard (it). My lord should send 14 minas of silver. (6) Perhaps my lord will say: "How did you figure it out?" Four merchants: half a mina each. Their four wives: half a mina each. One female dyer: half a mina. The re[st I shall i]tem[ise] (and) [...] in [a ...] (Break followed by a blank space) (r 1) And [...] come to [...] in front of the city gate!
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
ina UGU LÚ.DAM.QAR*-[MEŠ] / ša be-lí iq-bu-u*-⸢ni*⸣ / ma-a kas-pi-šú-nu la ⸢ú-še⸣-<bi>-la / ma-a KUG.UD ⸢la⸣-áš-šú as-se-me / 14 MA.NA KUG.UD be-lí lu-še-bi-la / is—su-ri be-lí i-qa-bi / ma-a a-ke-e tak-ṣip / 04 LÚ.DAM.QAR-MEŠ 1/2 MA.NA-a.a / 04 MÍ-ME-šú-nu 1/2 MA.NA-a.⸢a⸣ / 01 MÍ.mu-ṣap-pi-tú 1/2 MA.NA [o] / re-⸢eḫ-tú⸣ [a]-sa*-[dir] / ina [x x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] / ù [x x x x x x x] / a-na [x x x x x x x] / pa-an KÁ.GAL [x x] / al-ka
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P336802.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Mikko Luukko and Greta Van Buylaere, The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon (State Archives of Assyria, 16), 2002. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2012, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336802/..
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. & Van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa16/P336802/.
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.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.