Position in chronology
SAA 05 146. A Letter of Excuse (ABL 0768)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [T]o the king, my lord: your servant Urzana. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) The king, my lord, knows my affair. Whe[re] are the oxen and the rams? (7) Snow has blocked the roads. (As) I am looking out now, it is impossible: I cannot go empty-handed to the presence of the ki[ng]. (11) Or (suppose) I went and had to return from [...: I might ... and die in] the enemy country. (15) My heart [is ...], humble [...], reaching [...]. (18) As to what the king, [my] lord, [wrote me]: (19) "2[......] (20) 400 [......] (21) [......] (22) t[o ......] (23) the king [......] (r 1) [......] (r 2)…
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/P334543/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mur-za-na-a / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL BE*-ia / LUGAL BE-i :" ú-⸢da⸣ / a—bé-e-ti GUD.NÍTA-⸢MEŠ⸣ / ù UDU.NÍTA-MEŠ ia-a-⸢ka?⸣ / ku-pu-ú :" KASKAL-MEŠ / ú-ṣa-bi-it :" ⸢ka⸣-a-ni / a-da-ga-la :" la il-la-⸢ka⸣ / ⸢ra⸣-qu-te-ia :" ina IGI ⸢LUGAL⸣ / ⸢la*⸣ al-la-ak :" ú*-[la-a] / a-ta-al-ka :" ⸢TAv⸣ [x x] / a-su-uḫ-ru :" ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [ina] KUR.na-ki-ri [a-mu-at] / ia-ú :"…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334543.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334543). 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/P334543/.
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