Position in chronology
SAA 17 008. ‘Golden Heaven’ Removed from Esaggil; Famine (ABL 0468)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, our lord: your servants Nabû-ahhe-lumur] and [NN. Good health] to the king, our lord. The city and the guard of the king, our lord, are well. (6) Perhaps the king will say: "Why have you not sent me any news?" (9) When Hulala, the 'temple-enterer' of Šamaš, went away, he took with him the golden heaven from Babylon. The priests of Bel have [...] with him ... [...] (r 1) [Having] raised [an attack] against us, they seized the golden heaven on top of it, and brought the heaven here from Esaggil. (r 6) The princes who lead us have made the lands starve, (so that) the Lihuateans and the Hamaraneans, (and) the entire land now say: "We shall not make peace until they make the town of Ganata ours! [...] us [...]" (Rest destroyed)
Source: Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa17/P240149/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ni] / [ARAD-MEŠ-ka mdAG—ŠEŠ-MEŠ—lu-mur] / ù m[x x x lu-ú šul-mu] / a-na LUGAL ⸢be-lí*-ni* šul⸣-mu / a-na URU ù EN.NUN šá LUGAL be-lí-ni / min-de-e-ma LUGAL i-qab-bi / um-ma mi-nam-ma ṭè-e-ma / la taš-pu-ra-a-ni / mḫu-la-la LÚ.TU—É / šá dUTU ki-i il-li-ku-ú / AN-e šá KUG.GI ul-tu / URU.TIN.TIR.KI it-ta-šá-⸢aʾ*⸣ / ù LÚ.SANGA-MEŠ šá d⸢EN⸣ / ⸢it-ti⸣-šú i-⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x x x…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P240149.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240149). source
Translation excerpted from Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa17/P240149/.
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