SAA 13 172. We Have Not Been Selling Sheep (CT 53 876)

~665 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P314285

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 13

High confidence

(Obverse and beginning of reverse too fragmentary to translate) (r 2) When [......] (r 3) saying: "How many [have you sold] for [silver]? [These are] sheep of [...]." (r 5) The shepherds of regular sheep-offerings told them a[s follows]: "We have not sold [a single sheep] for silver, (nor) [...] from [...]. In truth, we supply (sheep) of our own as food for Bel. This [year], either the [...] sheep or the tamītu-sheep which were presented t[o the ... o]f Bel [...]." (r 13) Concerning the ox which [......] (r 14) [... we shall] perform [......] (r 15) [...] ox [......] (Break) (e. 1) [...] Since he has not brought it [...]

State Archives of Assyria, volume 13 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

ni-[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / is-[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / di-[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / ⸢ki⸣-[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / ⸢EN?⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x x] / bé-et ⸢i-x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x] / ma-a ki ma-ṣi ina ŠÀ [KUG.UD ta-di-na] / ma-a UDU-MEŠ-im-ma ša [x x x x x x] / LÚ.SIPA da-ri-i ⸢ki⸣-[i an-ni-i x x] / iq-ṭi-bu-ni-šú-nu ma-[a UDU me-me-ni] / ina ŠÀ KUG.UD la ni-din…

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 P314285.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P314285). 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/P314285/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet (VAT 15211)

An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.

~2050 BCE

Umma Livestock and Personnel Account (AnOr 1, 243)

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.

~1340 BCE

Amarna Letter EA 153 — Abi-milku of Tyre

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.