Position in chronology
SAA 19 072. Laying Foundations; Fights between Rusa and the Ruler of Etini (CTN 5 p. 116)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 19(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Aššur-le'i]. (3) [Good health to the king], my lord! (4) I have arrived in Sarun and am laying the foundations. I will (then) go to Birdunu, lay the foundations, and set out and go. (9) Perhaps the king, my lord, will say: "What is the news of Urarṭu?" (12) The ruler of Etini has twice attacked him, defeated him and plundered him. He is (now) upon him for the third time. (17) Rusa (= Ursa) marched straight from Ṭurušpâ against the Etiniean, (but) [has tu]rned around and is coming (here). (r 4) When I entered Sarduriani and attacked the cities of the…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 19 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / [ARAD-ka maš-šur—ZU] / [lu DI-mu a-na MAN?] ⸢EN-ia⸣ / ina URU.sa-ru-un aq-ṭí-rib / uš-še ak-ra-ra / al-lak ina URU.bir-du-nu / uš-še ak-ra-ra / ú-na-ma-šá ú-ṣa-a / i—su-ri LUGAL EN / i-qa-bi ⸢ma⸣-a mì-nu / ṭè-e-mu ša KUR.URI / KUR.e-ti-ni-a.a / 02-šú ina UGU-ḫi-šú i-zu-qu-pu / ⸢de⸣-ek-tu-šú i-du-ak / ⸢ḫu⸣-ub-tu-šú : iḫ-tab-at / ⸢šal⸣-šu-ti-šú ina UGU-ḫi-šú / ur-su mur-sa-a /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393631.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Mikko Luukko, The Correspondence of Tiglath-Pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud (State Archives of Assyria, 19), 2012. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2012, as part of the AHRC-funded research project “Mechanisms of Communication in an Ancient Empire: The Correspondence between the King of Assyria and his Magnates in the 8th Century BC” (AH/F016581/1; University College London) directed by Karen Radner. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P393631/..
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa19/P393631/.
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.