Position in chronology
SAA 01 138. The Wall Behind the Image of Ištar Collapses (ABL 1178)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king], my [lord: your servant Ama]r-ili. (3) [As to the ... wall behind] (the image) of Ishtar [of which the king my lord] told (me): "Place the symbol [where it] goes up and [...]; if the wall is leaning, write me" — (10) Now on the 4th, the wall caved in by itself. [PN] and the master-builders [came] to see it, and they said: "[The wall] is ruined; let them remove [...] and change [...]. The [...] that the king ord[ered ...]." (19) A wall which [...] which the king [...] knows! [All] is well, [the king my lord can be] gl[ad]. (Break) (r 15) He should go [...]. [As far as] the wall behind the god is concerned, the king my lord can be glad.
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/P334774/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN]-ia / [ARAD-ka ma]-⸢mar⸣—DINGIR / [ina UGU É.SIG₄? ta?]-⸢bi⸣-ú / [ša ku-tal] d15 / [ša LUGAL EN] iq-bu-ú-ni / [ma-a É] e-lu-ú-ni / [x x x]+⸢x⸣-ni* ma-a si-im-tú / [šu]-⸢uk⸣-na ma-a šúm-mu É.SIG₄ / [e]-mì-di šup-ra-a-ni / [ú]-ma-a an-nu-rig É.⸢SIG₄⸣ / [UD] 04-KÁM ra-ma-an-šú / ⸢id⸣-di-ʾi-ib m⸢x⸣+[x x x] / LÚ.e-tin-na-ti [it-tal-ku-ni] / e-ta-am-ru ⸢ma⸣-[a É.SIG₄] / ma-aq-tu šu-⸢ú⸣…
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 P334774.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334774). 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/P334774/.
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