Position in chronology
SAA 21 008. Fire Will Burn the Land of Akkad
Translation · reference
High confidenceBeginning destroyed (2) [......] You should have info[rmed …] (3) [...of] your [hea]rt is a sin of the land [...] (4) [......] rebellion [...] (5) [......] I want to bring [NN] to the top [...] (6) [......] of the magnates against [......] (7) [... hors]es with us [...] (8) [If] we go [with] them, wh[at shall we] take? (9) [...] Nabû-šezib of Ba[zu] (10) [...] to the sinners [...] (11) [...] You should have avoi[ded] rebellion ... [...] (12) [......] this …… his house [...] (13) [...in] his presence, to level into one [...] (14) [......] Did [he not] say to him: "I´ll now go go [to GN (which…
Source: Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P393853/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x] ⸢lu⸣ ú [x x x x x x] / [x x x x x] ⸢x⸣ lu tu-⸢ud⸣-[di x x x x] / [x x x ŠÀ?]-⸢bi⸣-ka an-nu ⸢KUR⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x x]-ra saḫ-ma-áš-⸢šu⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x a]-⸢na⸣ ap-pi lu-še-⸢ṣi⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x] ša LÚ.GAL-MEŠ ir-ti [x x x] / [x x ANŠE.KUR].RA-MEŠ it-ti-ni la ⸢id⸣-[x x] / [x x x x]-šú-nu ni-il-lak mì-na-[a x x] / [x x x ni]-⸢na⸣-áš-ši mdPA—še-zib šá KUR.⸢ba⸣-[zu?] / [x x x]…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P393853.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393853). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 2018. The Correspondence of Assurbanipal, Part I: Letters from Assyria, Central Babylonia, and Vassal States. SAA 21. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa21/P393853/.
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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.