Position in chronology
SAA 10 045. No Portents to Report (ABL 0687) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Balasî. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (6) Concerning what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "You must certainly have observed something in the sky" — I keep a close eye on it (but) I must say, I have seen nobody and nothing, (therefore) I have not written to the king. (14) Not(hing) has risen; I have seen not(hing). (r 1) Concerning the watch of the sun about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, it is (indeed) the month for a watch of the sun. We will keep the watch twice, on the 28th of Marchesvan (VIII)…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334485/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka mba-la-si-i / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL / EN-ia dPA dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / lik-ru-bu ina UGU šá LUGAL / iš-pur-an-ni ma-a / me-me-ni i-ba-áš-ši / ina AN-e ta-ta-ma-ra / a-na-ku IGI.2-ia / šá-ak-na mu-uk / man-nu me-me-ni la a-mur / a-na LUGAL la áš-pur / la iš-qu-⸢ma⸣ / la a-mur / ina UGU ma-ṣar-ti / šá dUTU šá LUGAL be-lí / iš-pur-an-ni / ITI EN.NUN ša dUTU / šu-u…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334485.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334485). 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/P334485/.
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