Position in chronology
SAA 10 041. Fashioning the Crown of Nabu (ABL 0404) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [our lord: your servants] Nabû-ahhe-[eriba and Balasî]. Good health t[o the king, our lord]! May Nabû and Marduk b[less the king], our lord! (6) Concerning the tiara [about which the king], our lord, wrote to us, the eye-stones which were shown to us are very beautiful. May Nabû, the lord of the world, bless the king, our lord, and lengthen the days of the king, our lord! May Nabû let the king, our lord, see the crown prince and his brothers prosper. (16) As to what the king, our lord, wrote to us: "There is more obsidian" — if 'eyes' are lacking, eye-stones should be made of it, and [if] a šanduppu (ornament) is lacking, a šanduppu-gem should be made of it. If it is extra, they may leave it unused.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334275/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-[na] LUGAL [EN-ni ARAD-MEŠ-ka] / mdPA—PAB-MEŠ—[SU mba-la-si-i] / lu šul-mu a-[na LUGAL EN-ni] / dPA dAMAR.UTU a-[na LUGAL] / EN-ni lik-[ru-bu] / ina UGU a-ge-[e ša LUGAL] / EN-ni iš-pur-an-ni / NA₄.IGI.2-MEŠ ša ú-kal-li-mu-un-na-ši-ni / dam-qa a—dan-niš / dPA EN KUR.KUR a-na LUGAL / EN-ni lik-ru-ub / UD-MEŠ ša LUGAL EN-ni lu-ur-ri-ik / né-mu-lu ša DUMU—LUGAL / ša ŠEŠ-MEŠ-šú dPA / a-na LUGAL…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334275.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334275). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334275/.
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