Position in chronology
SAA 02 012. Extract from a Treaty of Sin-šarru-iškun (AfO 13 T14)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 2(1) If you should sin against this treaty of Sin-šarru-iškun, king of Assyria, your lord, and his sons and grandsons, (6) may Nergal, the perfect lord, (pour out) your blood into ditches and ravines.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 2 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
šum-ma at-tu-nu ina ŠÀ a-de-e / an-nu-te šá md30—MAN—GAR-un / LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI EN-ku-nu / DUMU-MEŠ-šú DUMU—DUMU-MEŠ-šú / ta-ḫa-ṭi-a-ni / dU.GUR EN gít-ma-lu / ⸢da⸣-me-ku-nu ina ḫar-ri ⸢na⸣-da-⸢ba-ki⸣
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian treaty or loyalty oath, edited by Simo Parpola & Kazuko Watanabe (SAA 2, 1988). Binding agreement invoking divine sanction. ORACC text P336040.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Simo Parpola and Kazuko Watanabe, Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths (State Archives of Assyria, 2), 1988. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2016, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336040/..
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. & Watanabe, K. 1988. Neo-Assyrian Treaties and Loyalty Oaths. SAA 2. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa02/P336040/.
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The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.