Position in chronology
SAA 17 098. (no title) (CT 54 505)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [...] to Zeru-ib[ni ...] (3) [... ] Aššur to the king, [my] lord [...] (4) [As to what the king (my lord) wr]ote: "[...] for the new[s ...]" (5) [...] When [the hear]t of the king, my lord, is [...], (6) [...] they will do [the king's work] and [...] to [...]. (7) [As to what the king (my lord) wro]te: "[...] the women to [...] (8) [Their eyes] are se[t] upon them" [...] (9) [Their eyes] are set upon the king, my lord, (only) [...] (10) (When) [... com]es, he will see (it), and the kin[g ...] (11) [...] my herald [...] (12) [...], saying: "The words [...] (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/P237207/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ i-[x x x x x x] / [x x x x] a-na mNUMUN—DÙ [x x x x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ aš-šur a-na LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣-[ía x x x x] / [šá LUGAL iš]-⸢pu⸣-ra um-ma a-na ṭè-[e-mi x x x x] / [x x ŠÀ]-⸢bi⸣ šá LUGAL be-lí-ía ki-i i-[x x x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ip-pu-šú-ma a-na [x x x x] / [šá LUGAL iš-pu]-ra um-ma MÍ-MEŠ a-⸢na⸣ [x x x x] / [IGI.2-MEŠ-šú-nu i]-na UGU-ḫi-ši-na šak-[nu x x x x] / [ina UGU-ḫi] LUGAL…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237207.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237207). 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/P237207/.
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.