Position in chronology
SAA 17 066. Doing the King’s Work (to the Vizier) (CT 54 334+)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) [Tablet of Ana-Na]bû-taklak [to the vi]zier, his lord. Good health [t]o my lord! Say to [my] lord: (5) (Regarding) the work which I pulled out for the king from [...], I have ass[igned] the gua[rding] of my work to the king's men. (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ṭup-pi ma-na—d].⸢AG⸣—tak-lak / [a-na LÚ].⸢SUKKAL⸣ be-lí-šú / [lu]-⸢ú*⸣ šul-mu [a]-⸢na⸣ be-lí-ia / ⸢um⸣-ma-a a-na be-⸢lí⸣-[ia]-⸢a⸣-ma / ⸢dul⸣-lu ⸢šá⸣ ul-tu [x x x]+⸢x*⸣ / a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ as-su-[ḫu ina ŠU.2] / ⸢ERIM⸣-MEŠ šá LUGAL EN.⸢NUN⸣ [šá] / ⸢dul⸣-li-ia ⸢am?⸣-[ta-nu] / [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 P239395.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239395). 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/P239395/.
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.