Position in chronology
SAA 05 138. Forwarding Local Rulers to the King (CT 53 192)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [As to the city lords about whom] the king, my lord, w[rote to me, I am herewith sending t]o the king, my lord: (2) [Ad]â, along with the Ni[...ean, the ...ean], the Uluean, [the ...ean], and the Meṣaean, along with Da[...], (5) [in all] 7 subjects of the kin[g, my lord, together with] Lullupa[yu ...]. (8) [...] Da[...] (9) [...] Am-ra'i [...] (10) [...] cam[e ...] (11) [...] as [...] (Rest destroyed)
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/P313607/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[ša] ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí ⸢iš⸣-[pur-an-ni] / [ma]-⸢da⸣-a TAv KUR.ni-[x-x-a.a] / ⸢URU⸣.ul-ú-a.a URU.⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [KUR].me-ṣa-a.a TAv mda-[x x x x] / [PAB] ⸢07⸣ ARAD-MEŠ-ni ša ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / [TAv] mlu-ul-lu-pa-[a.a x x x] / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ LUGAL EN-ía [ú-se-bi-la] / [x x x]-ši mda-a-[x x x x] / [x x x] mam—ra-⸢i⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ i-tal-⸢ka⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x]-u ki-i [x x x x]
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P313607.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313607). 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/P313607/.
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.