Position in chronology
SAA 21 032. (no title) (ABL 0296)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) The king's word to Kudurru and the Urukians old and young, my servants: I am well; you can be glad. (4) When I w[rote] to your brothers, [and had the letter] brought to you on the 11[th ...] (Break) SPACER SPACER (r 1) Month of Adar (XII), 12th day. SPACER
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/P237991/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-mat LUGAL a-na mNÍG.GUB ù / LÚ.UNUG.KI-MEŠ LÚ.AB.BA-MEŠ u TUR-⸢MEŠ⸣ / ARAD-MEŠ-ía DI-mu ia-a-ši ŠÀ-ba-⸢ku⸣-[nu] / lu-ú ṭa-ab-ku-nu-ši ki-i ⸢áš⸣-[pu-ra] / [a]-na UGU ŠEŠ-MEŠ-ku-nu UD 11-[KÁM ši-pir-tú] / [ul]-te-⸢bi-la⸣-ku-⸢nu⸣-[šú x x x] / ⸢ITI⸣.ŠE UD 12-KÁM
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P237991.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237991). 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/P237991/.
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.