SAA 15 042. Feeding Hittite Deportees (ABL 1082)

• ša-za-bu-sa-te — Technical administrative term for a type of ration or food allocation; exact etymology and precise meaning debated. Luukko (SAA 15) renders it as a ration-type; some scholars connect it to a verbal root related to 'rescue/provision.' Restoration in line 4 is uncertain.
• LÚv.ḫa-ta-a.a — Literally 'Hittite(s)' — in Neo-Assyrian administrative texts this typically refers to deportees or subjects from formerly Hittite/Syro-Anatolian regions, not necessarily ethnic Hittites in the narrow sense.
• ŠE.tab-ku — Literally 'poured/heaped barley' — a technical term for a barley-heap or grain store from which rations are drawn. Reading of the damaged sign following (⸢x⸣+[x]) cannot be verified.
• ú-sa-ša-ni-ú — Š-stem of nasāḫu or a related root, meaning 'they removed/transferred.' The precise verb and subject are uncertain given the surrounding lacunae.
• pa-ni-a-te — Fem. pl. of pānû, 'former/previous' — here qualifying rations of a prior period. Appears twice (lines 5 and 9), each time with partially broken context.
• pi-i-ša-nu-ú-[ni] — Literally 'their mouth' — may function idiomatically as 'their statement/testimony' in this administrative epistolary context. Restoration and exact meaning uncertain.
• [x x] ⸢GIŠ*⸣.BÁN* — GIŠ.BÁN = seah (a dry-measure unit); the surrounding broken signs prevent recovery of the quantity or full context. Reading flagged with asterisks in the transliteration indicating uncertainty.

Visual examination: The photo shows British Museum tablet Rm 564, a clay fragment roughly 4–5 cm across. The obverse (top-centre image) preserves cuneiform script in approximately 14 lines; the clay surface is heavily worn and chipped, with the right edge broken away and the lower-left corner fragmentary. Individual wedge impressions are visible in the upper portion of the text face but become increasingly indistinct toward the bottom. The left and right side views and bottom views show extreme surface damage, crazing, and abrasion — no readable signs there. From the photo I can confirm the presence of dense, relatively small Neo-Assyrian script with horizontal ruling lines visible between some line groups, consistent with an administrative letter format. Individual sign groups are too small and too damaged at this resolution to verify specific sign readings beyond confirming the general script style and line count (~14 lines on the obverse), which aligns with the transliteration provided. The transliteration-based translation is from SAA 15 042 (ABL 1082), a Neo-Assyrian letter concerning the provisioning (šazabusāte-rations) of Hittite deportees; this administrative context is well established (Luukko, SAA 15, 2002, no. 42). The term šazabusāte remains lexically debated (see uncertainTerms). Confidence is low due to extensive lacunae and the fragmentary state of the tablet.