Position in chronology
SAA 17 196. Fragment Mentioning Merodach-Baladan (CT 54 375)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Your servant NN: I would gladly die for the king, m]y [lord! S]ay to the ki[ng, my lord]: (5) [x] men with 3 ho[rses] have [...]ed [...]. (7) [Th]ey are [...] m[en of] Merodach-Bal[adan ...]. (9) On the 24[th] day [...] (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/P239449/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[ARAD-ka mx x x x] / [a-na di-na-an LUGAL] / [be-lí]-⸢ia lul⸣-[lik] / [um]-⸢ma⸣-a a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [be-lí-ia-a-ma] / [x] ⸢ERIM⸣-MEŠ 03 ⸢ANŠE⸣.[KUR.RA-MEŠ] / [it]-ti-šú-nu ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [x]-ʾu-ú LÚ.[x x-MEŠ] / [šá m]dAMAR.UTU—DUMU.⸢UŠ⸣—[SUM-na] / [šú]-nu UD ⸢24?⸣-[KÁM x x x] / [x x]+⸢x⸣-an-ni šá ⸢x⸣+[x x x]
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P239449.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239449). 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/P239449/.
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.