Position in chronology
SAA 17 012. Visiting the King (ABL 0835)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Your [ser]vant Nabû-bel-šumate: I would gladly die for the king, my lord! Say to the king, my lord: I have s[en]t my messenger to greet [the king], the hor[se]s and [the soldi]ers. (8) After [I went] to the palace to the presence of the king, my lord, (10) [...] ... [...] (11) [...] ... [...] (12) [...] 7 men (13) [...] Now (14) [...] ... (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/P238437/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢ARAD⸣-ka md⸢AG⸣—EN—MU-MEŠ / [a]-⸢na⸣ di-na-[an] ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí-ia / ⸢lul⸣-lik um-ma-a / [a]-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma / ⸢LÚ⸣.DUMU—KIN-ia a-na šul-mi / [LUGAL] ANŠE.⸢KUR⸣.[RA]-MEŠ ù / [ERIM]-MEŠ ⸢al-tap⸣-ra / ⸢ul⸣-tu ⸢pa⸣-[an a]-na É.GAL / [a-na] ⸢pa⸣-an [LUGAL be]-lí-ia / [al-li-ku] ⸢x⸣+[x x]-⸢lu?⸣-mu / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x]-a-ti / [x x x x x] 07 ERIM-MEŠ / [x x x x x x] en-na / [x x x x x x]-bu
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238437.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238437). 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/P238437/.
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.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.