Position in chronology
SAA 01 226. Shipping Saplings of Fruit Trees to Dur-Šarruken (ABL 0813)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-dammiq. Good health to the king! (9) I have imposed on the (people) of Nemed-Ištar 2,350 bundles of apple trees and 450 bundles of medlar trees, in all 2,[800] bundles; on the [...]th of Šebat (XI) I returned ... to Dur-Šarruken. (13) [Na]nî and the (ruler) of Suhu [have come] to me; Ahu-illika and [Zab]ina-Il are with them. They are collecting saplings of almond, quince and plum trees and transporting them to Dur-Šarruken. (r 6) The Suhaean and the local people are also bringing saplings from the country of Laqê — 1,000 bundles of apple trees; their vanguard has arrived and I have seen it, but their rearguard has not yet arrived.
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/P334567/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-a / ARAD-ka mdPA—SIG₅-iq / lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-a / 02 lim 03 me 50 i-bi-su / ša GIŠ.ḪAŠḪUR*-MEŠ / 04 me 50 i-bi-su ša GIŠ.KIB / PAB 02 lim [08 me] i-bi-su / URU.né-⸢med—d⸣15-a.a* / e-⸢te*⸣-me-di / UD [x]-⸢KAM⸣ ša ITI.ZÍZ / ⸢x x x x⸣-u-a ú-te-re / ina URU.BÀD—mMAN—GIN / [mna?]-ni-i ù KUR.su-ḫa-a.a / [it-tal-ku]-ni mPAB*—DU*-ka / [mza?]-⸢bi⸣-na—DINGIR i-si-šú-nu / [GIŠ].⸢ziq*⸣-pu…
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 P334567.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334567). 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/P334567/.
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.