Position in chronology
SAA 13 045. The Priest of Ea-Šarru Visits the Aššur Temple (ABL 0555)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) "Let [...] be [...]ed from Ešar[ra]!" (2) I confirmed the king's order, and gave (what was due) to the king. Now then, Nergal-belu-uṣur, the chief cook, can report on me. The king's order is now fixed in my mouth, and I keep the king's treaty. (9) Binunî, the priest of Ea-šarru, stands in the middle of the Aššur temple, and says to the chariot knight of Aššur: "Why does a chariot knight [...] the chariots [in thi]s way? [If] within 10 days I have not destroyed your [...] from the temple of Aššur — what else?" (r 3) Let the king ask (about it). A young man who caught…
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/P334380/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x TA?⸣ É*.ŠÁR.[RA] / ⸢lu x⸣+[x]-⸢te⸣-te a-bat LUGAL / uk-te-en a-na LUGAL a-ti-din / an-nu-rig mdMAŠ.MAŠ—EN—PAB / LÚ.GAL—MU EN—ṭè-me-ia / ú-ma-a a-bat LUGAL kun-tú / ina pi-ia EN—a-de-e / ša LUGAL a-na-ku / mbi-nu-ni-i LÚv.SANGA šá d60—MAN / ina qab-si É—daš-šur / i-za-az a-na LÚv.DUMU—SIG₅ / ša aš-šur ma-a GIŠ.GIGIR-MEŠ / a-na mì-ni LÚv.DUMU—SIG₅ / [a-ki] ⸢an?⸣-ni-ma / [ma-a šum?-ma?]…
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 P334380.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334380). 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/P334380/.
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.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.