Position in chronology
SAA 17 183. Fragment Mentioning Tilmun and Urarṭu (to the Crown Prince) (CT 54 217)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(Beginning destroyed) (2) Za[badu ...] (3) knowingly [...] (4) "Kurr[ala'u ...] (5) what canvas [...] (6) the plundered of the land [...] (7) that you have [...] to (all) the lands (8) the lands of ... [...] (9) Tilmun, the land [...], (10) the Ura[rṭean ...] (11) said [...] (Break) (r 2) he seizes ... [...] (r 3) the governor of [...] (r 4) he let consume, [...] (r 5) a bad piece of advice [...] (r 6) and the gov[ernor ...] (r 7) I have seen [...] (r 8) After they had tak[en ...] (r 9) the crown prince, [my] lord, [...] (r 10) and fumigants [...] (r 11) all for [...] (r 12) before [...] (r 13) as [...] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
šu-[x x x x x x x x x x] / mza-[ba-du x x x x x x] / mu-⸢da-at-ti⸣ [x x x x x] / um-ma mkur-⸢ra⸣-[la-ʾu-ú x x x] / mi-nu ṭu-a-⸢na⸣ [x x x x x x] / ḫab-tu-tu ⸢KUR⸣ [x x x x x x] / šá a-na KUR.KUR ta-⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / KUR.KUR šá ⸢x x⸣ ki [x x x x x] / NI.TUK.KI KUR.⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x] / LÚ.ú-ra-⸢ár⸣-[ṭa-a.a x x x x] / iq-ta-⸢bi⸣ [x x x x x x] / [x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x] / [x] i-ṣa-bat ta ⸢x⸣+[x x x…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238854.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238854). 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/P238854/.
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.