Position in chronology
SAA 10 063. Full Moon on 14th Day and Conjunctions of Mars and Venus [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [our] lo[rd: your servants Bal[asî] and Bamaya. Good he[alth] to the king, our lord! May Nabû and M[arduk] bl[ess] the king, our lord! (6) The moon and sun appeared together on the 14th day. (8) Before we saw the king, our lord's letter, we kept watch, wrote [a report], and gave it to [...]. He did not [......] mouth [.....] we sei[z]ed [...]. (16) Now then we shall watch the appearance (of the moon) in Tebet (X) and write to the king, our lord. (r 3) The bodyguard brought the letter on the 19th of Kislev (IX). (r 5) If the Pleiades flare up and go before Venus, in the…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P336679/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-⸢na⸣ LUGAL ⸢EN⸣-[ni] / ARAD-[MEŠ]-ka mba-⸢la⸣-[si-i] / mba-am-ma-a.a lu-u ⸢DI⸣-[mu] / a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ni dAG ⸢d⸣[AMAR.UTU] / a-na LUGAL EN-ni ⸢lik⸣-[ru-bu] / ⸢UD⸣ 14-KÁM d30 u dUTU / ⸢is-si a⸣-ḫa-mì-iš / ⸢it-ta-am-ru⸣ ki-i ⸢ú⸣-di-ni / e-gír-tú ša LUGAL EN-ni / la né-[mar]-u-ni / ⸢ma⸣-[ṣar]-⸢tú⸣ ni-⸢ta⸣-ṣar / ⸢x⸣+[x x x]+⸢x⸣ ni-sa-ṭar / a-na [x x x] ni-ti-din / la i-⸢x⸣+[x] ⸢x ḫar⸣ / pi-i ⸢x x x…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P336679.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336679). 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/P336679/.
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