Position in chronology
SAA 01 190. Settling a Dispute (ABL 0131)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the ki]ng, my lord: yo[ur servant] Nabû-pašir. Good health to the king, my lord! May Sin and Nikkal bless the king, my lord! (6) (As to) the cousin(s) of Giri-Dadi, the city-ruler of Til-Turi, who petitioned the king, my lord, and about whom the king my lord wrote to me: "Give them back whatever Giri-Dadi has taken from them" — (15) I gave it back to them. (Now) Se'-lukidi, a cousin of Giri-[Dadi] has came [and said to me]: (Break) (r 2) "[......] Let them come and pluck out the [...] of Ta[bal], lest the king should return from Dur-Iakin and deport us; Giri-Dadi spoke nonsense, because he was afraid." (r 7) I am now sending Giri-Dadi and his cousin Se'-lukidi, who told us the things, to the Palace. What are the king my lord's instructions?
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/P334079/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na] ⸢LUGAL*⸣ EN-a / [ARAD]-⸢ka⸣ mdAG—pa-šir / ⸢lu⸣ DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-a / d30 [u*] dNIN.GAL / a-na LUGAL EN-a lik-ru-bu / ⸢DUMU⸣—ŠEŠ—AD-šú / ša mgi-ri—U.U LÚv.EN—⸢URU⸣ / ša URU.DU₆—tu-ú-ri / ša a-na LUGAL EN-a / iḫ-ḫa-ru-ú-ni / ša LUGAL EN iš-pur-an-ni / ma-a mi-i-nu mgi-ri—U.U / TAv pa-ni-šú-nu iš-šu-u-ni / sa-ḫi-ir di-na-áš-šú-nu / ú-sa-ḫi-ir a-ta-na-áš-šú-nu / mse-eʾ—lu-ki-di…
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 P334079.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334079). 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/P334079/.
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.