Position in chronology
SAA 21 027. Write as Follows to Bel-usallim (650-ii-25) (ABL 0517)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 21(1) The king's word to Nabû-ušabši: I am well; you can be glad. (4) Concerning the words of Bel-ušallim about which you wrote, write to him as follows: (7) "As to the son of Ea-zera-qiša and the elders of Bit-Amukani about whom you wrote, what you did is good; you have done a thing that is good to the house of your lord." (13) "And regarding the matters of the Lady Humbustu, about which you wrote: 'I have written to the Palace about them' — the king does not render the verdict of men who go to the king until Bel-ušallim comes into the presence of the king, my lord, and gives him a counsel…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 21 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
a-mat LUGAL a-na md+AG—GÁL-ši / DI-mu ia-a-ši ŠÀ-ba-ka / lu-ú ṭa-ab-ka / i-na UGU dib-bi šá md+EN—GI / šá taš-pur a-ki-i a-ga-a / šup-ra-áš-šú um-ma / ina UGU DUMU mdÉ.A—NUMUN—BA-šá / u LÚ.AB.BA-MEŠ šá LÚ.É—ma-muk-a-ni / šá taš-pur um-ma ba-ni / šá te-pu-šú um-ma a-mat šá / ina UGU É—EN-ka ṭa-ba-tu* / ši-i te-tep-uš u um-ma / ina UGU dib-bi MÍ.ḫu-um-bu-us-te / šá taš-pu-ra um-ma ana-ku / a-na…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P237175.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237175). 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/P237175/.
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
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.