Position in chronology
SAA 08 299. Cancer and Regulus in Lunar Halo (RMA 112A) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If [the moon] is surrounded by a halo, and Cancer stands in it: [the king] of Akkad will extend the life. (3) The moon is surrounded by a river: it will rain. (4) — It is surrounded by a halo [...]. (5) If the moon [is surrounded] by a halo, and Regulus stands in it: in this year women will give birth to male children. (7) [If the moon] is surrounded by a halo, and two stars stand inside the halo with the moon: a reign of [long] days. (r 3) From Nabû-iqiša of Borsippa.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237318/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 [30] TÙR NIGIN-ma MUL.AL.⸢LUL⸣ ina ŠÀ-šú GUB-iz / [LUGAL] ⸢URI.KI⸣ ba-la-ṭu ⸢ur-rak⸣ / 30 ÍD NIGIN-mi A.AN ŠUR-nun / ⸢TÙR⸣ [x x x] NIGIN-mi-[ma] / 1 30 TÙR [NIGIN-ma] MUL.LUGAL ina ŠÀ-šú GUB-iz / MU BI MÍ-MEŠ NITA-MEŠ ul-la-da / [1 30] ⸢TÙR⸣ NIGIN-ma ina ŠÀ TÙR / 02 MUL-MEŠ KI d30 GUB-MEŠ / BALA UD-MEŠ [GÍD.DA]-MEŠ / šá mdAG—BA-šá ⸢DUMU⸣ BÁR.SIPA.KI
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 P237318.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237318). 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/P237318/.
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.