Position in chronology
SAA 21 038. What Can Sîn-šarra-uṣur Say against You? (ABL 0523)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To Sîn-[tabni]-uṣur: (2) Concerning Sîn-šarra-uṣur about whom you s[aid]: "Now then, he is devising a scheme and putting terrible things against me" — don't be afraid! (5) What can this villain say against you? Don't I know that you have di[ed] and stayed awake, kept [my watch], and been [driv]en, and hard pressed, through no fault of your own, on behalf of the house of [your] lords? What could he say against you? And in the middle of it, why would I listen to it? Do not fear his return; your life is with me. (18) And concerning your coming about which you said, "The magnates have held me…
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/P393832/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na m30—DÙ*—⸢PAB*⸣ / ina UGU* m30—MAN—PAB šá ⸢taq*⸣-[bu-u-ni] / ma-a an-nu-ri nik*-[lu] / i-nak*-kil* sam-ku ⸢ina⸣ [UGU-ḫi-ia] / i-kar-ra-ár ⸢la ta⸣-[pal-làḫ] / mì-nu LÚ.ḫap-pu an-ni-⸢ú⸣ / ina UGU-ḫi-ka i-qab-⸢bi⸣ / ana-ku la ud-da-a šá ta-⸢mu*⸣-[tú-ni] / ù ta-ad-líp-ú-ni u* [EN.NUN-MU] / ta-aṣ-ṣur-ú-ni ta-⸢ri?⸣-[du-ni] / u ta-as-mu-ú-ni mi-i-[nu ḫi-ṭu] / ù tab-laṭ-an-ni ina UGU É—EN-[MEŠ-ka] /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P393832.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393832). 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/P393832/.
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.