Position in chronology
SAA 15 072. Adda-rami and Horses (CT 53 606)
About this tablet
A letter written to the Assyrian king from a royal servant named Bel-ilu, probably dating to the seventh century BCE and found at Nineveh. The surviving text — heavily broken — concerns horses: specific numbers (three horses are mentioned) and something happening on a road or during transport. Horses were the lifeblood of the Assyrian army and chariotry, and letters tracking their movement, condition, and delivery were a routine part of palace administration. Despite its fragmentary state, the tablet is a small window into the logistics that kept the Assyrian military machine running.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Translation · reference
Low confidence[To the king, my lord,] / [your servant Bel]-ilu: / [May there be peace for the king, my] lord. / [... A]dda-rami / [... a]-ḫula / [...]iq / [... the king,] my [lord] / [................................] / [..................] ab ...[...] / [......] they dragged (?) ... [...] / [......]-imma, which I had taken, / [......]+x they brought on the road, / [......] now, truly, / [...] horses / [...] 3 horses / [...]+x in addition to the 3 horses / [...] they tr[embled(?)] / [...]+x a / [...]
Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[To the king, my lord]: your servant [Ad]da-[rami]. [May it be well with the king, my] lord. [...] Adda-rami [...] a-ḫu-la [...] [... the king,] my lord [...] [...] [... they] bore/carried [...] [...] which I had taken [...] they brought on the road [... the tru]th, now: [... hor]ses [...] 3 horses [... c]oncerning the 3 horses [... they trem]bled [...] [...]
5 uncertain terms ↓
- md10—ra-mi — The divine determinative + logogram 10 (= Adad/dAdad) + ra-mi; the name is Adda-rami, 'Adad is exalted/merciful.' The reading of the first element as Adad (10) rather than another deity is standard for this name in Neo-Assyrian.
- a-ḫu-la — Context broken; possibly a toponym, a personal name, or a form meaning 'he wept/lamented' (aḫālu). Cannot resolve without more context.
- ir-tu-ʾu-bu — Restored verb, likely from raʾābu ('to tremble, be agitated') in the G-stem preterite 3pl, describing the horses. Restoration is plausible but not certain given the lacuna.
- ke-e-tu — Standard Akkadian kēttu/kītu ('truth, justice'); here used adverbially 'in truth, truly.' Restoration partially supplied by editors.
- KASKAL ú-bi-lu-ni — Literally 'they brought (it/them) on the road/journey'; KASKAL can mean 'road,' 'campaign,' or 'journey.' Context suggests transport of horses.
Reasoning ↓
Photo examination: The tablet is identified as K.15011 (British Museum), a small clay fragment photographed from multiple angles — obverse, reverse, left and right edges, top and bottom. The obverse (upper centre panel) shows roughly 10–12 lines of Neo-Assyrian cursive cuneiform; the surface is heavily eroded and chipped along all edges, with the upper-left corner and lower portion broken away. Individual wedges are visible in the upper rows but increasingly indistinct toward the lower half. The reverse (upper right panel) shows further faint impressions, partially legible. The lower fragment views show the edges and bottom, largely unscribed or too worn to read signs individually at this resolution. Cross-check: The visible wedge clusters on the obverse are consistent with short Neo-Assyrian signs in the expected positions for a letter incipit and body, broadly matching the transliteration's layout; I can tentatively confirm sign groups in lines 1–4 align in spacing with [a-na LUGAL] / [ARAD-ka] / [DI-mu] formulae, but cannot verify individual signs due to resolution and erosion. The personal name m10-ra-mi (= Adda-rami, where '10' is the Sumerogram for Adad) and the horse terminology (ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ) in the lower lines are consistent with SAA 15 072 as published by Luukko & Van Buylaere (2002). The verb ir-tu-ʾu-bu ('they trembled/were agitated') is restored and uncertain. Cannot verify the broken passages from the photo alone.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3395 in / 972 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ía] / [ARAD-ka md]⸢EN⸣—SU / [lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL be]-lí-ía / [x x x x x m]10—ra-mi / [x x x x x a]-ḫu-la / [x x x x x]-⸢iq⸣ / [x x x x x LUGAL] EN-⸢ía⸣ / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x] ⸢ab x⸣+[x x] / [x x x i]-du-lu i-si-[x] / [x x x x]-⸢im⸣-ma šá al-qu-u-⸢ni⸣ / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ KASKAL ú-bi-lu-⸢ni⸣ / [x x x ke]-⸢e⸣-tu ú-ma-a / [x x x x] ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ / [x x x x]-ni 03 ⸢ANŠE.KUR⸣.RA-MEŠ / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ina UGU 03 ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ / [x x x x ir]-⸢tu⸣-ʾu-bu / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ a / [x x x x x x x]
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Babylonia and the eastern provinces under Sargon II, edited by Andreas Fuchs & Simo Parpola (SAA 15, 2001). ORACC text P314018.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P314018). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).
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