Position in chronology
SAA 08 397. Full Moon on 15th Day (RMA 165A) [lunar]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) If on the 15th day the moon and [sun] are seen together: a strong enemy will raise his [weapons] against the land; [the shrine]s of the [great] god[s will be torn down]. (Break) (r 1) attack of a ruling city. — On the 15th day one god is seen with the other. (r 3) 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/P237910/
Why it matters
Transliteration
1 UD 15-KÁM 30 u [20] / it-ti a-ḫa-meš IGI-[MEŠ] / LÚ.KÚR dan-nu GIŠ.⸢TUKUL⸣-[MEŠ-šú] / ana KUR ina-aš-[šá-a] / [BARAG]-MEŠ DINGIR-[MEŠ GAL-MEŠ ina-qar] / te-bé-e URU kiš-šá-⸢ti⸣ / UD 15-KÁM DINGIR KI DINGIR IGI-⸢ma⸣ / šá mTUK-ši—DINGIR ARAD šá LUGAL IGI-[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 P237910.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237910). 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/P237910/.
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.