Position in chronology
SAA 05 228. Criminals Again (ABL 0599)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) I have sent [......]. (3) [NN], a servant of the go[vernor of ...] and his family are [st]aying on the [other] side (of the river). Wha[t ar]e the king my lord's orders? (8) Likewise, there are some criminals (whom) Nimarkayu, a [serv]ant of the Crown Prince, seized and brought to the Palace: (14) Abi-ram and Dala-Il, in all two Arzuhinaeans, and with them two Arraphaeans; they have questioned them in the Palace. (r 5) I am [no]w s[ending over] the criminals who were their accomplices. (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/P334412/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / ú-se-bíl [mx x x] / ⸢ARAD-šú⸣ ša LÚv.⸢EN*⸣.[NAM] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ šu-ú [ù] / ⸢É?⸣-su ina ba-⸢ti⸣ [am-mì-ti] / [kam]-mu-su : mì-⸢i*⸣-[nu] / ša LUGAL be-lí <$x x$> / i-⸢qa*⸣-bu-u-ni i-se-niš / LÚv.LUL-MEŠ šú-nu / [m]ni-mar-ka-a.a / ⸢ARAD⸣-šú ša DUMU—LUGAL / ⸢ú⸣-ṣa-bi-ti / ⸢ina*⸣ É.GAL na-aṣ-ṣa / ⸢m*⸣AD—ra-me / mda-la—DINGIR PAB 02 / URU.ur-zu-ḫi-na-a.a / 02 URU.arrap-ḫa-a.a i-si-šú-nu / ina É.GAL ú-sa-ni-qu-šú-nu / LÚv.LUL-MEŠ ša i-si-šú-nu / [an-nu]-⸢rig?⸣ ú-⸢se*⸣-[bi]-⸢la⸣
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334412.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334412). 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/P334412/.
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.