Position in chronology
SAA 13 080. Request for a Personal Audience with the King (ABL 0377)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-šumu-iddina. Good health, good health, good health to the king, my lord. A thousand (times) good health to the king, my lord. May Aššur, Sin, Šamaš, Bel, and [Nabû] bless the king, my lord. (11) The face of the king my lord has been seen by very many (people). (14) Let an order be given to the palace-overseers: when the elders pass by beneath the terrace, let them allow me to see the face of the king, my lord, and may the k[ing] look at me. Let them constantly send me word on the health of [the king, my lord]. (r 10) Upon whom are my eyes fixed? (In) that I have written, let them allow me to enter before the king and speak (with him).
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/P334253/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mdPA—MU—AŠ / lu-u DI-mu lu-u DI-mu / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / a-du 01 lim lu-u DI-mu / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / daš-šur d30 dšá-maš / dEN ù d[AG] / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lik-ru-bu / pa-ni ša LUGAL EN-ia / a—dan-niš a—dan-niš / e-ta-am-ru-u-ni / a-na LÚv.šá—IGI—É.GAL-MEŠ / ṭè-mu <li>-iš-kun-nu / ki-ma LÚv.AB.BA-MEŠ / ina KI.TA tam-le-e / e-te-qu / lu-ra-mu-u-ni / pa-ni ša…
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 P334253.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334253). 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/P334253/.
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.