Position in chronology
SAA 17 049. News of Elam and Dur-Yakin (ABL 0899)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Your [servant] Amel-Nabû: I would gladly die for the king, my lord! [May Nabû and Mar]duk [bless] the king, [my] l[ord]! Say t[o the king, my lord]: (6) The king, [my] lo[rd, can] be glad. The palace, the magna[tes] (and) the guard [of ...] are [well]. There are no reports on Elam. (r 2) Whatever portents there have been, have all come for the city Qibi-Bel. I have heard it being said: "Now Qibi-Bel is to be destroyed and he is to go to the fortress of Yakin." All existing towns (r 13) [...] Qibi-Bel (r 14) [...] the lower [f]ortress (r 15) their [...] (r 16) [have b]een deported.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ARAD]-ka mLÚ—d⸢AG*⸣ a-na / di-na-an ⸢LUGAL be-lí⸣-ia / lul-lik [d.AG u dAMAR].⸢UTU⸣ / a-na LUGAL ⸢be⸣-[lí-ia lik-ru-bu] / um-ma-a a-[na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma] / ŠÀ-bi LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣-[ia] / lu-ú ṭa-⸢ab⸣ [šul-mu] / a-na É.GAL [x x x] / a-na LÚ.GAL—[x x x] / a-na EN.NUN [x x x] / ṭè-e-⸢mu⸣ / šá KUR.NIM.MA.KI / ia-aʾ-nu / it-ta-a-ti / ma-la a.a-i / ina <URU>.qí-bi—dEN / it-tal-ka-a-ni / al-te-mu um-ma…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237911.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237911). 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/P237911/.
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.