Position in chronology
SAA 16 085. Itemising Textiles (ABL 0770)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-šarru-uṣur. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bl[ess] the king, my lord. (6) As to what the king, [my lord, wrote me] (Break) (r 1) which the k[ing ......] (r 2) "if [...], (r 3) "I shall g[o and ...]; (r 4) "thereafter I shall item[ise them]."
Source: Luukko, M. & Van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa16/P334545/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mdAG—MAN—PAB / lu-u DI-mu a-na MAN EN-ia / dAG ù dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL EN-ia lik-[ru-bu] / ina UGU ša LUGAL [be-lí] / [x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x] / ša ⸢LUGAL⸣ [x x x x x x x] / ma-a šum-ma ḫu-[x x x x] / ma-a al-[x x x x] / ma-a id—da-a-te a-sa-[dir]
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P334545.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334545). source
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/P334545/.
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.