Position in chronology
SAA 08 370. Jupiter and Scorpius in Lunar Halo (RMA 095) [planetary]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon is surrounded by a halo, and Jupiter stands in it: the king will be shut up. (But) its halo was not closed; (so) it does not portend evil. (5) If the Frond star stands with [...]: for [...] a sign, an equivalent of a sign portending good will be there in the sky. (r 3) If Šarur and Šargaz of the sting of Scorpius keep gaining radiance: the weapons of Akkad are raised. (r 8) From Nabû-šuma-iškun.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237883/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 TÙR NÍGIN-ma dSAG.ME.GAR / ina ŠÀ-šú GUB LUGAL ú-ta-sar / TÙR-su ul ka-ṣir / ana ḪUL ul i-la-pat / 1 MUL.A.EDIN KI ⸢x⸣+[x] / ú-šú-uz ana a-⸢x⸣+[x x] / GISKIM / mi-ḫir GISKIM* ana SIG₅ / ina AN-e i-ba-áš-ši / 1 dŠÁR.UR₄ u dŠÁR.GAZ / šá zi-qit MUL.GÍR.TAB / it-ta-na-an-bi-ṭu / GIŠ.TUKUL-ME KUR—URI.KI / ⸢te⸣-bu-ú / šá mdAG—MU—GAR-un
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 P237883.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237883). 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/P237883/.
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.