Position in chronology
SAA 08 395. Full Moon on 14th Day (RMA 148) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [If] on the 14th day the moon and sun [are seen together]: reliable speech; the land will become happy; [the gods] will remember [Akkad] favorably; joy [among the troops]; the king will reach the highest rank; the cattle of [Akkad wi]ll lie in the steppe undisturbed. (6) If the moon and sun are in opposition: the king of the land will widen his understanding. (8) I.e., on the 14th day each [month one god] will [be seen with the other]. (r 1) (The moon) came into opposition with [the sun] on the appropriate day, and [its] position is equal (to the sun's) portending a reign of long days, (and) well-being of the king of the world and [his] people. (r 5) [From] Rašil the older, servant of the king.
Source: Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P237894/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[1] ⸢UD 14-KÁM⸣ 30 u 20 it-ti [a-ḫa-meš IGI-MEŠ] / KA GI.NA ŠÀ KUR DÙG-ab [DINGIR-MEŠ KUR—URI.KI] / ana MÍ.SIG₅ i-[ḫas-sa]-su ḫu-ud ŠÀ [ERIM-ni] / LUGAL SAG.KAL-tú DU-ak bu-lim KUR—[URI.KI] / pár-ga-niš ina EDIN i-rab-⸢bi⸣-[iṣ] / 1 30 u 20 šu-ta-tu-[ú] / LUGAL KUR uz-nu DAGAL-[áš] / šá UD 14-KÁM ITI-[us-su DINGIR KI DINGIR] / in-⸢nam⸣-[ma-ru] / 1 a-na BALA UD-ME GÍD.DA-[MEŠ] / šá-lam LUGAL ŠÚ u…
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 P237894.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237894). 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/P237894/.
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.