Position in chronology
SAA 03 023. Epical Text Mourning the Death of a King (CT 54 513)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [......] is veiled in darkness. (3) [......] he looks on, the magnates [...] towards him. (4) [......] of kusītu and sāgu garments (5) [......] holding [...], wailed like an ecstatic. (6) [......]... his ... and his mouth (7) [......] is in labour, screaming (8) [......] her [...]: "Oh magnates [...]! (9) [......]... the king, your lord (10) [......]... the land and the king (11) [......]... like a snake" (12) [......]... he has put on [...]... (r 1) [......]... and the lower side (r 2) [......] tears rolled down [the cheeks] of his mother: (r 3) "[......]... you, I…
Source: Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336158/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ ta-di-ir-tú ku-ut-⸢tu?-um?⸣ / [x] ⸢x⸣ i-dag-gal GAL-MEŠ ⸢ina ir⸣-ti-šú ⸢x⸣+[x] / [x]-nu-te šá TÚG.BAR.DIB-MEŠ TÚG.sa-gat-MEŠ / [x x x x x] ú-ka-lu a-ki maḫ-ḫe-e id-⸢mu⸣-[mu] / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ lu ⸢x x-šú⸣ u KA-šú / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ta-ḫi-al ina ṣi-ri-iḫ-te / [x x x x x x]-šá ma-a GAL-MEŠ MU [x x] / [x x x x x]-⸢ri?⸣-ba ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ku-[nu] / [x x x x x…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian court poetry or literary text, edited by Alasdair Livingstone (SAA 3, 1989). ORACC text P336158.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336158). source
Translation excerpted from Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336158/.
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.
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.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.