Position in chronology
SAA 08 242. Birth Omens [terrestrial]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If ...]......, that cattle-pen will ... (2) [If an ano]maly has a bump in its back ...[...] your adversary will submit [to you]. (4) [If] an anomaly has an excrescence: the days of the ruler will be long; the [ki]ng will achieve supreme royal power, will have a large army, and will see a reign of prosperity. (8) That cattle-pen will improve. (9) Perhaps the king my lord will say: "Why did you not quote (any omens) from Šumma izbu? (11) There are no [...] in what I [...]. (12) from Šumma i[zbu ......] you quoted ... [......]...[......]. (Rest destroyed)
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336675/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x]+⸢x⸣ x x x x TÙR BI i x / [BE iz]-⸢bu⸣ ma-áš-tu ina ku-tal-li-šú ⸢x⸣+[x x] / ⸢EN⸣—a-ma-ti-ka i-kan-nu-uš ⸢x⸣ [x] / [BE] iz-bu ṣi-ba-ra GAR UD-me ⸢NUN⸣ GÍD.DA-⸢MEŠ⸣ / ⸢LUGAL⸣ LUGAL-tu kiš-šú-tu DIB-bat / um-ma-na ma-at-tu TUK-ši / BALA ḪÉ.NUN IGI.LAL / TÙR BI ana IGI-šú DU-ak / is—su-ur-ri LUGAL be-lí i-qab-bi / ma a-ta-a TAv ŠÀ-bi ša BE—⸢iz⸣-[bi] / ⸢la⸣ ta-su-ḫa ina ŠÀ-bi ša ⸢a⸣-[x x] / ⸢x⸣ [x]+⸢x⸣ la-a-šú TA ŠÀ-bi BE—⸢iz?⸣-[bi x x] / x ⸢ta-su⸣-ḫa ⸢x⸣ [x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣ [x x] su ⸢x⸣ [x x x x]
Scholarly note
Astrological report from a court scholar to an Assyrian king, edited by Hermann Hunger (SAA 8, 1992). Celestial and meteorological observation correlated with omens. ORACC text P336675.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336675). source
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336675/.
Related tablets
Related sources
Whatever its purpose, this single tablet shows that Babylonian mathematicians, working in base-60, had an arithmetic understanding of right triangles a millennium before Pythagoras was born.
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.