Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 13 044. The Runaway Chariot (ABL 0611)

~665 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334423

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......] before the king. (2) I asked [...] the chariot-driver [of DN] who set it up, "Why are you setting up the table of Šamaš?" He told me as follows: "Aššur has gone outside and come back in again. (9) I myself asce[nded] the chariot when it was empty. It kept going [all right], but the ground was narrow and while I paid attention to the chariot's ..., I damaged the rim of the table and the front side of the image. The house truly fell to the ground!" (r 7) [In] the days of the king, my lord, your father, they upset the table [of Šamaš in] the same way. The man [who ...] was [pu]nished, and the prefect was [rem]oved (from office). (r 12) [...] ... thither (r 13) [...] this (Rest destroyed)

Source: 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/P334423/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ina IGI LUGAL / [x x x x x x] LÚ.mu-kil—KUŠ.PA-MEŠ / [ša] d⸢x x⸣ ša ik-ru-ru-ú-ni / [a]-sa-al mu-uk GIŠ.BANŠUR / ⸢ša⸣ dUTU a-ta-a ta-kar-ra-ra / ki-i an-ni-i iq-ṭi-bi-a / ma-a daš-šur a-na qa-ni i-tu-ṣi / ma-a is-su-ḫur e-ta-rab / ma-a a-na-ku GIŠ.GIGIR ra-qu-te-šá / ⸢e-te-li?⸣ [x x x] ⸢tal⸣-la-ka / [ma-a] ⸢kaq⸣-qu-ru sa-ni-qi / ma-a ⸢a?-na?⸣ GIŠ.še-er-ni at-taḫ-rid!? /…

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 P334423.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334423). 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/P334423/.

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