Position in chronology
SAA 17 115. The Son of Yakin Prepares for the New Year’s Festival (ABL 0261)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) To the king, our lord: your servants Nabû-šumu-lišir and Aqar-Bel-lumur. Good health to the king, our lord! Say to the king, our lord: the fortress and the armed forces of the king are well. The king, our lord, can be glad. (9) News of the son of Yakin: he is in Babylon. He is waiting for the month Nisan (I). As soon as the month Nisan is over, we shall hear the relevant report and inform the king, our lord. (r 1) [...] the eunuch (r 2) [...]... before (r 3) [...] Now (r 4) [...] dependent (r 5) [...] archers (r 6) [...] 4 donkeys (r 7) 700 [...] we have dispatched to the king, our lord.…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-i-ni / ARAD-MEŠ-ka mdAG—MU—SI.SÁ / ù mKAL—dEN—lu-mur / lu-ú šu-lum a-na LUGAL be-lí-i-⸢ni⸣ / um-ma-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-i-ni-a-ma / šu-lum a-na URU.ḪAL.ṢU-MEŠ / ù e-mu-qu šá LUGAL / ŠÀ-bi šá LUGAL be-lí-i-ni / lu-ú ṭa-a-bi ṭè-e-mu / šá DUMU—mia-GIN ina TIN.TIR.KI / šu-ú pa-an ITI.BARAG / i-dag-gal áš-šá-a ITI.BARAG / ul-te-ti-qu ṭè-en-šá / ni-šem-me-e-ma / a-na LUGAL be-lí-i-ni /…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237829.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237829). 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/P237829/.
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.