Position in chronology
SAA 05 108. An Urarṭian Woman on the Throne of Habhu (CT 53 037+)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my] lo[rd: your servant NN]. Good health t[o the king, my lord!] (2) My messenger permane[ntly (appointed) in the presence of the treasurer] has greeted m[e, saying]: (4) "You ordered me to sa[y to] the treasurer: '[Wa]it for my messenger; see, I am going to write to the treasurer.' I was in Kipšuna for [x] days, and the treasurer kept waiting for [your] mess[enger], but you [did not send word], nor did your messenger come [...]. (11) "Now [then] the peop[le of the country ......] (12) [......] (13) '[I] bear [......] (14) [te]ll me; if not [......], (15) should they do…
Source: Lanfranchi, G.B. & Parpola, S. 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces. SAA 5. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa05/P313452/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL ⸢EN⸣-[ia ARAD-ka mx x x x] / lu DI-mu a-[na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / LÚv.A—KIN-ia ⸢ša⸣ [IGI LÚv.IGI.DUB] ⸢ka⸣-a.a-⸢ma⸣-[nu] / DI-mu iq-ṭí-ba-[ni ma-a at]-ta ṭè-e-[mu] / ta-sa-kan-an-ni ma-[a a-na] LÚv.IGI.DUB qi-[bi] / ma-a IGI LÚv.A—KIN-ia [du]-⸢gul⸣ ma-a a-mur ⸢a⸣-[na-ku] / ina UGU LÚv.IGI.DUB a-šap-par ma-a UD-mu ⸢ka⸣-[x x] / ina URU.kip-šú-na a-na-ku ma-a IGI LÚv.⸢A⸣—[KIN-ka] /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P313452.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313452). source
Translation excerpted from Lanfranchi, G.B. & Parpola, S. 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces. SAA 5. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa05/P313452/.
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.