Position in chronology
SAA 10 069. God-Stricken Field (CT 53 146) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Nabû-ahhe-er]iba. [Good health to the king], my [lord. My Nabû and] Marduk bless [the king], my [lo]rd! (7) [Concerning] the large field [of the Ass]yrians [about which the king], my lord, wrote to me: "It was a very productive field; who is removing the grain?" — (13) the farmers who seeded the fields do not revere Adad any more; that is why he let a lightning bolt strike down (and devastate the field). (r 3) Since the king, my lord, commanded (so), an exorcist should perform the (ritual called) "Purification of the Field," and he should at the same…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P313561/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / [ARAD-ka mdPA—PAB-MEŠ]—⸢SU⸣ / [lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN]-⸢ia⸣ / [a—dan-niš d]⸢PA⸣ dAMAR.UTU / [a-na LUGAL] ⸢EN⸣-ia / [lik-ru]-bu / [ina UGU] ⸢A⸣.ŠÀ GAL* / [ša LÚ.áš]-⸢šu⸣-ra-a.a / [ša LUGAL] be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / [ma-a A].ŠÀ id-di-mì-iq / a—⸢dan⸣-niš ŠE.PAD-MEŠ / man-nu ú-pa-sa-ak / LÚ.ENGAR-ME ša ŠE.⸢NUMUN⸣ / i-ru-šu-u-ni / a-ka-an-ni / ana dIM <$x ni$> / la i-pal-⸢lu-ḫu⸣ / ina…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P313561.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313561). 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/P313561/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Whatever its purpose, this single tablet shows that Babylonian mathematicians, working in base-60, had an arithmetic understanding of right triangles a millennium before Pythagoras was born.
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.