Position in chronology
SAA 17 163. (no title) (CT 54 143)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Your servant [Naṣib-il: I would gladly die for my lord]! Say t[o the king, my lord]: (4) Concerning what the king, [my] lord, [wrote] to me: "[......] (6) for the ... [...] (7) one among them [...] (8) knows them. For [...] (9) unlike an e[nemy ...] (10) [to] our [e]ars [...] (Break) (r 2) for [...] (r 3) Be[l-... ...] (r 4) are jubilant [...] (r 5) [...] ... [...] (r.e. 6) I sent [...] to [the king, my lord], on the 9th day [...].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
ARAD-ka [mna-ṣib—DINGIR] / a-na di-⸢na⸣-[an be-lí-ia lul-lik] / um-ma-a a-[na LUGAL be-lí-ia-ma] / šá LUGAL be-lí-[a iš-pu-ra-an-ni] / um-ma ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / a-na kip-na-[x x x x x x] / 01-en ina ŠÀ-bi-⸢šu⸣-[nu x x x x x] / i-du-šú a-na [x x x x x x] / ⸢ul⸣ ki-i LÚ.⸢ze⸣-[ʾi-ra-nu x x] / [a-na] ⸢PI⸣.2-ni ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / [x x] ⸢du⸣ [x x x x x x x x] / ⸢x x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] / a-⸢na x⸣+[x x…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238500.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Manfried Dietrich, The Neo-Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib (State Archives of Assyria, 17), 2003. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2009-11, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238500/..
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/P238500/.
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.