Position in chronology
SAA 01 077. On Bronze Panthers and a Wood Store (ABL 0091)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Ṭab-ṣill-Ešarra. Good health to the king, my lord! May Aššur and Mullissu bless the king, my lord! (6) The stands of both bronze panthers are quite attractive; they are working on minor improvements in their finish. (10) As to the wood store for the iron brazier in the palace of the Inner City about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, I consulted the mayors, masons and elders (who told me this): (14) "The chief of public works will do the demolition and the brickwork; the sons of the palace maids will supply the materials needed and plaster its roof;…
Source: Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334040/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mDÙG.GA—ṣil—É.ŠÁR.RA / lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / aš-šur dNIN.LÍL a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-ru-bu / dnam-ra-ni URUDU / ki-la-li ma-za-su-šú-nu / dam-qa-at a—dan-niš / dul-la-šú-nu i-ba-ši ša dam-mu-qi / e-pu-uš ú-da-mu-qu / ina UGU É—GIŠ-MEŠ ša ka-nu-ni AN.BAR / ša ina É.GAL ša URU.ŠÀ—URU ša LUGAL EN iš-pur-ni / a-na LÚv.ḫa-za-na-te / a-na LÚv.ú-ra-si LÚv.AB.BA-MEŠ /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Sargon II, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 1, 1987). Letter from a governor or high official to the king of Assyria. ORACC text P334040.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334040). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334040/.
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.