Position in chronology
SAA 08 373. New Moon on 1st Day (RMA 041) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If the moon at its appearance wears a crown: constantly the harvest of the land will prosper; the land will dwell as if in pastures near the city; the king will reach the highest rank. (5) If at the moon's appearance its right horn becomes long, and its left horn short: the king will conquer a land not his own. — The moon will complete the 30th day. (r 3) If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of long days. (r 5) If the moon becomes visible on the 1st day: good for Akkad, bad for Elam and the Westland. (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/P237886/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 30 ina IGI.LAL-šú AGA a-pir / SAG.UŠ-ma BURU₁₄ KUR SI.SÁ / KUR a-bur-riš TUŠ-ab / LUGAL SAG.KAL-tú DU-ak / 1 30 ina IGI.LAL-šú SI 15-šú GÍD-ma / SI 150-šú ik-ri / LUGAL KUR la šu-a-ti / ŠU-su KUR-ád / [30 UD 30]-KÁM ú-šal-lam-⸢ma⸣ / 1 UD ana ŠID-ME-šú GÍD.⸢DA⸣ / BALA UD-ME GÍD-ME / 1 30 UD 01-KÁM IGI-ma / SIG₅ KUR—URI.KI / ḪUL KUR.NIM u MAR / 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 P237886.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237886). 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/P237886/.
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.