Position in chronology
SAA 03 035. Marduk Ordeal (Nineveh Version) (MEW 242)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [The ... who ......] with the tiara of Bel [......] (2) [......]... he destroys the lands [......]. (3) [......] The man who rages in his house ...[......, is Bel]. He is held fast [in the prison]. (4) The man who on the 7th of [Nisan ...] from [...] is [the messenger of] Šamaš and Adad. [He takes him] out of the prison. [......: "Witho]ut the messenger of his lords, who could take him out?" (6) The messenger who goes and brings him out [and who rides ......], goes to the (place of the) ordeal. (7) The Akitu House where he goes is the house [at the edge of (the place of) the ordeal; they…
Source: Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336245/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢a⸣-di ⸢AGA?⸣ dEN ⸢ú⸣-[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢x x x⸣ KUR.KUR-MEŠ i-ḫe-ep-pi ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-i LÚ ša ina* É*-šu i-ra-ʾa-bu-ú-ni ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [dEN šu-ú ina É LÚ.ṣa-ab-te] šu-ú-tu ka-li LÚ ša UD 07-KAM ša…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian court poetry or literary text, edited by Alasdair Livingstone (SAA 3, 1989). ORACC text P336245.
Attribution
Image: BM 134503 + BM 134504 + BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336245). 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/P336245/.
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.