Position in chronology
SAA 10 046. Watch for a Solar Eclipse (ABL 0351) [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 the watch of the moon about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, (the eclipse) will pass by, it will not occur. (9) Concerning the watch of the sun about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, does the king, my lord, not know that it is being closely observed? The day of tomor[row] is the only (day left); once the watch is over, (this eclipse), too, will have passed by, it will not occur.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334227/
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 ma-ṣar-ti šá d30 / šá LUGAL be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / ú-še-taq la i-šak-kan / ina UGU ma-ṣar-ti šá dUTU / ša LUGAL be-lí / iš-pur-an-ni / LUGAL be-lí la ú-⸢da*⸣ / ki-i da-aʾ-nu-tú-[ni] / UD-mu ša ši-i-[a-ri] / ⸢šu*⸣-ú / ú-de-e-šú / ma-ṣar-tú ga-[am-rat] / ú-še-taq-ma / la i-šak-kan
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334227.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334227). 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/P334227/.
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