Position in chronology
SAA 19 166. Excellent Harvest but Fodder Stolen (CTN 5 p. 197)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) It rained [extre]mely heavily [on the nig]ht of the 27th until the daybreak, the whole day on the 27th and the whole night on the night of the 28th. [The r]ain poured down very [mu]ch water, the amount [o]f water is great indeed. The harvest will be excellent. (r 1) [...]qu has come and taken fo[dder from] the fodder and [...] stores. He took once when I was in the king my lord's presence in Arbela, and now he has done it again and taken it for the second time! (r 8) (Concerning) Aššur-naṣir, Ammi-[ha]tî (and) Bel-apkal-ilani, total three recruitment officers, about…
Source: 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/P393673/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x] / [ina] ⸢MI⸣ ša UD ⸢27-KAM⸣ / a-di na-me-ra-ni / ina UD 27-KAM UD-mu gab-bi-šú / ina MI ša UD 28-KAM / MI gab-bi-šú / [A].⸢AN⸣-MEŠ ma-aʾ-da / [a]—⸢dan⸣-niš i-zu-nu-nu / [zi]-⸢i⸣-nu A-MEŠ / [ma]-⸢aʾ⸣-da a—dan-niš / ⸢ik⸣-ta-ra-ra ni-bu / ⸢ša⸣ A-MEŠ ma-aʾ-da / [a]—dan-niš ⸢BURU₁₄⸣ / ⸢SIG₅⸣-iq a—dan-niš / [m]⸢x⸣-qu i-tal-⸢ka⸣ / [ina] É—Ú-MEŠ É—ḫi-⸢x⸣ ŠE.⸢ki?⸣-[su-tú] / ⸢i⸣-si-qi…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393673.
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/P393673/..
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/P393673/.
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.