Position in chronology
SAA 13 029. Letter Similar to No 28 (ABL 0997)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 13(1) Concerning the work of [...] about which the king, my lord, wro[te to me], saying: "Let them process the gold according to this [...]" — we have now weighed out the gold and silver which are the property of Sin and carry the seal of Nabû-zeru-ibni. We have melted down 23 minas of gold in the agate-standard, including the votive gifts. Now they will hammer (it) as thin as the king commands. (12) [......] (Break) (r 1) Let [them] w[rite to me what the king, my lord], commands. (r 2) And concerning the pole of the divine emblem about which the king, my lord, spoke, saying: "I have heard that…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 13 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
i-na UGU dul-li ša [x x x] / ša LUGAL be-lí iš-pu-ra-an-ni / ma-a KUG.GI i-na pi-it-⸢ti⸣ [x x x] / ḫa-an-ni-e le-pu-⸢šú⸣ / an-nu-rig KUG.GI KUG.UD / ša i-na ŠÀ-bi NÍG.GA ša d30 / ša i-na NA₄.KIŠIB ša mdPA—NUMUN—DÙ / ni-iḫ-ti-aṭ / 33 MA.NA KUG.GI a-du še-lu-a-te ina BABBAR.DIL / [o] nu-ṣi-ii-di an-nu-rig ú-ra-qu-qu? / [a-du] mi-i-nu ša LUGAL i-qab-bu-u-ni / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [LUGAL…
Scholarly note
Letter from a temple priest or ritual official to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Steven Cole & Peter Machinist (SAA 13, 1998). ORACC text P334669.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P334669). source
Translation excerpted from Cole, S.W. & Machinist, P. 1998. Letters from Priests to the Kings Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal. SAA 13. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa13/P334669/.
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.