Position in chronology
SAA 03 042. Fragment of Aššur’s Response to a Royal Letter (JAOS 103, 148)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) As to what you wr[ote me: ......] (2) The king of [......] (3) As to what you wrote [me: ......] (4) They fled [......] (5) Because of [......] (6) The kings [......] (7) As to what you wrot[e me: ......] (8) In [......] (9) In [......] (Rest destroyed)
Source: Livingstone, A. 1989. Court Poetry and Literary Miscellanea. SAA 3. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa03/P336606/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ša taš-[pur-an-ni x x x] / LUGAL ša [x x x x x] / ša taš-pur-[an-ni ma-a x x x x x] / in-nab-[tu x x x x] / áš-šú [x x x x x] / LUGAL-MEŠ [x x x x x] / ša taš-⸢pur⸣-[an-ni x x x x x] / ina ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / ina [x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x]
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian court poetry or literary text, edited by Alasdair Livingstone (SAA 3, 1989). ORACC text P336606.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336606). 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/P336606/.
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.