Position in chronology
SAA 10 060. Anomaly Omens are Difficult to Read (ABL 0688) [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]. (5) Concerning the tab[let] of Šumma izbu [about which] the king, my lord, wrote to me: "Look (at it)! [Who would] write [...] in Šumma izbu?" — there is a particular tablet [in] which the [...]s are written, and I am now sending it to the king. The king should have a look. Maybe the scribe who reads to the king did not understand. (r 1) Šumma izbu is difficult to interpret. The first time that I come before the king, my lord, I shall (personally) show, with this tablet that I am sending to the king, my lord, how the omen is written. (r 10) Really, [the one] who has [not] had (the meaning) pointed out to him cannot possibly understand it.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334486/
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 ⸢ṭup*⸣-[pi] / ša BE—iz-[bi ša] ⸢LUGAL be-lí⸣ / iš-pur-an-ni ma-a ⸢a⸣-[mur] / ina ŠÀ BE—iz-⸢bi*⸣ e* ⸢x⸣+[x man-nu] / i-šaṭ-ṭar 01-en šu*-[ú] / ṭup-pu* ša ⸢x x x⸣+[x ina ŠÀ]-⸢bi⸣ / šá-aṭ-ṭa-ra-a-ni / an-nu-rig a-na LUGAL / us-se-bi-la / LUGAL le-mu-ur / is—su-ri LÚ.A.BA / šá…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334486.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334486). 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/P334486/.
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