Position in chronology
SAA 21 141. I've Been Labeled as Undependable (ABL 1364)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2') I am a [...] of your house. Your father appointed me in the service of the master of (harem) women, and I did (my) work. (7') Now then they have labeled me as undependable and have watered down my ability. (r 1) Šulmu-ereš the chariot driver, Dadi-ibni,, the third man, (and) Adad-remanni the weaver, who fled from the presence of your father in order not to be killed, have instigated a fight between me and Sagab. They now [...] between me (Break) (l.e. 1) they have chased me, saying: “You are [......]
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/P424577/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x] ⸢x⸣+[x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x] É-ka / a-na-ku AD-ka / ina IGI LÚ.GAL—MÍ-MEŠ / ip-taq-da-an-ni / dul*-lu e-tap-áš / ú-ma-a an-nu-rig / ú-sa-am-mu-⸢ni⸣ / Á.2-MEŠ-ia A-MEŠ / un-tal-li-ú / mDI-mu—APIN-eš LÚ.mu-kil—KUŠ.PA-MEŠ / mU.U—DÙ LÚ.03.U₅ / m10—rém-a-ni LÚ.UŠ.BAR / ša TAv pa-ni du-a-ku / TAv pa-ni AD-ka / iḫ-liq-u-ni / bir-tu-ú-a / bir-ti msa-gab / ú-sa-an-ḫi-ṣu / ⸢ú*-ma*-a*⸣ bir-tu-u-a / [x x x x x x]-⸢bu⸣ / uk-ta-ši-du-u-ni ma-[a x x x x] / at-⸢ta*⸣ [x x x x]
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Assurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 21, 2018). ORACC text P424577.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P424577). 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/P424577/.
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.