Position in chronology
SAA 12 088. Gift of Sennacherib for Esarhaddon (ABL 1452)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Sennacherib, king of the world, king of Assyria — golden bracelets inlaid with ivory, a golden crown, a golden necklace, rings for the upper arm; all these pieces of jewellery, inlaid with agate, ..., and chalcedony, weighing 1 1/2 minas and 2 1/2 shekels, I gave to Esarhaddon, my son, who henceforth shall be called Aššur-etellu-mukin-apli, as a token of love. (r 4) (From) the booty of Bit-Amukani. (r 5) Let the one who trusts in you not come to shame, O Nabû.
Source: Kataja, L. & Whiting, R. 1995. Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period. SAA 12. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa12/P334915/
Why it matters
Transliteration
mdEN.<ZU>—ŠEŠ-MEŠ—eri-ba MAN kiš-šá-ti / LUGAL KUR—AN.ŠÁR ḪAR-MEŠ KUG.GI tam-lit ZÚ / GIL KUG.GI ga-a-gi KUG.GI ḪAR-MEŠ ku-bur—a-ḫi / ⸢PAB?⸣ du-ma-qi an-nu-te ša tam-lit-su-nu / NA₄.BABBAR.DIL NA₄.BABBAR.DIL.DIL NA₄.NÍR / 01 1::2 MA 02 1::2 GÍN KI.LAL-šú-nu / a-na maš-šur—PAB—AŠ DUMU-ia ša EGIR / maš-šur—NIR.GÁL—GIN—DUMU.UŠ MU-šú / na-bu-ú ki-i ru-ʾa-a-⸢me*⸣ / a-din KUR-tú É—ma-muk / NIR.GÁL.ZU-ka NU TÉŠ-a-ni dPA
Scholarly note
Royal grant, decree or gift inscription of the Neo-Assyrian period, edited by Laura Kataja & Robert Whiting (SAA 12, 1995). ORACC text P334915.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Laura Kataja and Robert M. Whiting, Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period (State Archives of Assyria, 12), 1995. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, 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/P334915/..
Translation excerpted from Kataja, L. & Whiting, R. 1995. Grants, Decrees and Gifts of the Neo-Assyrian Period. SAA 12. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa12/P334915/.
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.