Position in chronology
SAA 16 081. Jewellery for the King (ABL 0847)
About this tablet
A letter sent to an Assyrian king — most likely from the reign of Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal — by a palace goldsmith named Nabû-sagib, son of Paruṭi, who worked for the Queen's Household. The writer reports that he has handed over items of jewellery, including a semi-precious stone three fingers wide and a crystal ornament, to a doorkeeper named Matanaḫ-ili, along with a covering note. He closes by asking the king to settle a dispute about whether the delivery was actually made — a small but vivid glimpse of palace life, accountability, and the careful record-keeping expected even of craftsmen working deep inside the Assyrian royal court.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Medium confidenceTo the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-sagib, son of Paruṭi, goldsmith of the Queen's Household. May all be well with the king [my lord]; may Nabû and Marduk [bless] the king, my lord. [...] year(s) from the palace / [...] they asked [...] of the month [...] / [...] silver / A 'babbar-dil' stone, 3 fingers broad, / a crystal ornament — / I gave (them) to Matanaḫ-ili, / the doorkeeper, / together with a letter, / saying: 'Let the king, my lord, / decide — whether he gave (it) / or whether he did not give (it). / Let the king, my lord, inquire.'
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photoTo the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-sagib, son of Paruṭi, goldsmith of the Queen's Household. May it be well with the king. [My lor]d — may Nabû and Marduk [bless] the king, my lord. [… year]s from the palace / [… ] they inquired [… ] of the month [… ] silver / An agate-bead of 3 fingers in width, (and) a DAG.GAZ of crystal (lit. 'eye-stone of the right side') — I gave (these) to Matan-ili, the doorkeeper, together with a letter, saying: 'Present (this) to the king, my lord. Judge (the matter): whether he has given (it), or whether he has not given (it) — let the king, my lord, inquire.'
10 uncertain terms ↓
- mdPA—sa-gi-ib — Theophoric name Nabû-sagib; 'sagib' means 'exalted/elevated', so the full name = 'Nabû is exalted'. Conventional rendering Nabû-sagib follows SAA practice.
- mpa-ru-ṭi — Personal name Paruṭi; possibly a West-Semitic or Aramaic hypocoristic. The sign marked ⸢ru*⸣ in the transliteration indicates an uncertain reading; cannot verify from photo.
- LÚ!.SIMUG.KUG.GI — Literally 'craftsman of gold' = goldsmith. The '!' marks an apparent scribal error corrected by the editor.
- É MÍ—É.GAL — Literally 'house of the woman of the palace' = the Queen's Household / harem administration.
- NA₄.BABBAR.DIL — A type of agate or banded stone bead; translated here as 'agate-bead' following CAD and SAA convention. Exact stone type debated.
- DAG.GAZ šá NA₄.IGI.ZAG.GA — DAG.GAZ is an ornament or setting type, not fully understood; NA₄.IGI.ZAG.GA = 'eye of the right side' = crystal or rock crystal. Conventional rendering 'crystal ornament'; precise object shape uncertain.
- ma-tan-aḫ—DINGIR — Personal name Matan-ili = 'gift of the god'. Theophoric compound.
- e-gír-tu is-se-niš — egirtu = 'letter, tablet'; issenīš = 'together, at the same time'. Translation: '(I gave them) together with a letter.'
- di*-ni — Read as dīnī, imperative of dânu 'to judge / decide'. The asterisk indicates an uncertain sign reading in the transliteration. Could alternatively be read as a noun 'my judgment/case'.
- Lines 8–11 (heavily lacunose) — Multiple signs and words broken; the restorations offered follow the ORACC SAA 16 081 edition but remain conjectural. Content apparently concerned a timeframe ('years') and a query or report.
Reasoning ↓
Photo examination: The image shows a British Museum tablet fragment (accession label '83 / 1-18 / 115' visible on the right-face view), photographed from multiple angles — obverse, reverse, and both edges. The obverse (top centre panel) and reverse (middle large panel) carry clearly ruled lines of Neo-Assyrian cursive cuneiform; the bottom oval panel shows a lenticular tag or bulla with a few signs. Surface preservation is moderate: wedges are legible in the upper portion of the obverse but become less distinct toward the broken lower-left edge; the reverse shows somewhat more erosion on the right side. At this resolution I can confirm the presence of densely ruled lines matching the line-count of the transliteration, and I can pick out sign-groups consistent with LUGAL, ARAD, and the NA₄.BABBAR.DIL sequence in the lower body; the broken passages (lines 8–11) correspond visually to the damaged lower left corner of the obverse and the upper right area of the reverse, aligning with the lacunae in the transliteration. The name mdPA-sa-gi-ib (Nabû-sagib) and mpa-ru-ṭi are read from the transliteration; the photo confirms a proper-name cluster in lines 2–3 but individual signs cannot be verified at this resolution. The letter is a standard Neo-Assyrian court communication concerning jewellery items (an agate bead and a crystal ornament) delivered to a doorkeeper for transmission to the king; see SAA 16 081 commentary (Luukko & Van Buylaere 2002). The damaged lines 8–11 resist full restoration; tentative readings follow the ORACC edition.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3372 in / 1361 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka mdPA—sa-gi-ib / A mpa-⸢ru*⸣-ṭi LÚ!.SIMUG.KUG.GI / šá É MÍ—É.GAL / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL / [be-lí]-ía dAG u dAMAR.UTU / [a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ia lik-ru-bu / [x x MU].AN.NA TAv É / [x x x x x] ⸢iš?⸣-al?-u-ni / [x x x x x] ⸢ša⸣ ITI.[x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢KUG?⸣.UD / ⸢NA₄⸣.BABBAR.DIL 03 ŠU.SI ru-up-šá-šá / DAG.GAZ šá NA₄.IGI.ZAG.GA / a-na ma-tan-aḫ—DINGIR / LÚ.Ì.DU₈ a-ti-din / e-gír-tu is-se-niš / mu-uk a-na LUGAL be-lí-ía / ⸢di*⸣-ni šum-ma it-ti-din / šum-ma la id-din / LUGAL EN liš-al
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P334590.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334590). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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