Position in chronology
SAA 13 161. Restoration Work on the Temples of Babylon (ABL 0471)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 13(Beginning destroyed) (1) [May ......] Ma[rduk, .......], lord [of ...], [Zarpani]tu, Nabû, and Tašmetu greatly bless [the king, my lord]. May they lengthen [the days of the ki]ng, my lord. May [Nabû in Ezid]a and Bel in Esaggil show [prosperity] to the king, my lord. (8) [Concerning the lay]ing of the gate(s) in Babylon, [about which the king, my lo]rd, wrote to me, saying: "Go lay it," [it has been laid]. The gate of the temple of Ea [has been l]aid too, and we will lay those of the perimeter of Esaggil [and of ...]. (12) Furthermore, it is [ti]me to (begin) work [on the foundations] of the…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 13 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[x x x x x x] d⸢AMAR⸣.[UTU x x] / [x x x x x] EN ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [dzar-pa-ni]-tum dPA dtaš-me-tum / [a-na LUGAL EN]-⸢ia⸣ a—dan-niš lik-ru-bu / [UD-me ša] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ia lu-ur-ri-ku / [dPA ina É.ZI].⸢DA⸣ dEN ina É.SAG.ÍL / [né-ma-al-šú] a-na LUGAL EN-ía lu-kal-li-mu / [ina UGU ka]-⸢ra⸣-ri ša KÁ ša ina KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI / [ša LUGAL be]-⸢lí⸣ iš-pur-an-ni-ni ma a-lik kur-ru* / [ik-ta-ar-ru] KÁ*-ma 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 P334324.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P334324). 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/P334324/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.
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.