SAA 05 186. Exchanging Messengers (CT 53 407)

~715 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P313820

Translation · reference

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (2) [...-er]eš, a [...], [and ...]ayu, a subordinate of [NN, have co]me to me. The king kn[ows that they are] distant [...]. (6) [I have now sent] m[y messenger] to [him]; as soon as he returns [t]o me, [I shall immediately w]rite to the king, [my lord]. (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/P313820/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / [mdx]—⸢APIN⸣-eš ⸢LÚv.A⸣—[KIN?] / [x x x]-a.a ša ŠU.2 [mx x] / [it-tal?]-⸢ku?⸣-u-ni LUGAL ⸢ú⸣-[da] / [x x x] ⸢pa⸣-ti-ú-te [šu-nu] / [LÚv.A—KIN]-⸢ia⸣ ina UGU-ḫi-[šú] / [a-sa-par] ki-ma-a / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣-ia i-suḫ-ra / [ár-ḫiš ina] UGU LUGAL / [EN-ia a]-⸢šap⸣-pa-ra

Scholarly note

Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P313820.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313820). 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/P313820/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~2050 BCE

Drehem Cattle-Distribution Tablet

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.

~1340 BCE

Amarna Letter EA 153 — Abi-milku of Tyre

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.

~3300 BCE

Clay tablet, late Uruk period, 3300-3100 BCE. Proto-cuneiform signs, food issue list " rations" written by combining a human head and a bowl. Purchased via Christie's in 1989, with contribution from the British Museum Friends