Position in chronology
SAA 05 115. Retrieving Captured Soldiers (ABL 0579)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your] servant [Gabbu-ana-Aššur]. (3) As to the news of Ura[rṭians], I wrote: "Wha[t] is the news of them?" They were reported to have captured six [of our] soldier[s] who were moving provisions up to the forts. (9) I wrote to the major-domo: "Don't try to take them by force. (Instead) write to Abilê: 'Why have you seized our men?' and quickly write me what he replies." (r 5) I moved the bull colossus to the river bank on the 17th.
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/P334398/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / ⸢ARAD⸣-[ka] m[gab-bu—ana—aš-šur] / UGU ṭè-me ša KUR.⸢URI⸣-[a.a] / a-sa-par nu-uk mì-i-[nu] / ṭè-en-šú-nu ma-a 06 LÚv.ERIM-[MEŠ-ni] / ša ZÍD.e-ṣi-di-a-te / a-na URU.ḪAL.ṢU-MEŠ / ú-še-lu-u-ni ú-ṣab-bi-tú / a-na LÚv.GAL—É a-sa-par / nu-uk Á.2-ka / ina ŠÀ-šú-nu la tu-bal / nu-uk šu-up-ru / UGU ma-bi-le-e / ⸢ma⸣ a-ta-a LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ-ni / tu-ṣa-bi-ta nu-uk / mi-nu ša e-pal-ka-ni / ár-ḫiš šup-ra / UD 17-KAM NA₄.dALAD.dLAMA / ⸢UGU⸣ ÍD uq-ṭa-ri-ib
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334398.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334398). 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/P334398/.
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.