Position in chronology
SAA 08 307. Scorpius in Lunar Halo (RMA 108) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon is surrounded by a halo, and Scorpius stands in it: entu-priestesses will be made pregnant; men, variant: lions will rage and cut off traffic. (6) The sign does not affect (us). Because of the king's watch I wrote to the king my lord. (r 3) From Zakir.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237636/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 TÙR NIGIN-ma MUL.GÍR.TAB / ina ŠÀ-šú GUB NIN.DINGIR.RA-ME / uš-taḫ-ḫa-a NITA-ME / : UR.MAḪ-ME ÚŠ-ME-ma / A.RÁ KUD-ME / it-tum ul ta-lap-pat / áš-šú ma-aṣ-ṣar-tum šá LUGAL / ana LUGAL EN-ía áš-pu-ra / šá mza-kir
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 P237636.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237636). 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/P237636/.
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.