Position in chronology
SAA 10 143. We can either Teach Astronomy or do Corvee Work (ABL 0346) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, our lord: your servants, the scribes of Kilizi. Good health to the king, our lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king! (8) We watched the moon; on the 14th day the moon and the sun saw each other. (This means) well-being. (r 1) May Nabû and Marduk bless the king. Because of the ilku-duty and the corvée work we cannot keep the watch of the king, and the pupils do not learn the scribal craft.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334224/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ni / ARAD-MEŠ-ka LÚ.A.BA-MEŠ / ša URU.kàl-zi* / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL / be-lí-ni / dAG dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL lik-ru-bu / ma-ṣar-tu ša d30 / ni-ta-ṣar / UD 14-KAM d30 u dUTU / a-ḫe-iš / e-ta-am-ru / DI-mu / dAG u dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL lik-ru-bu / TAv pa-an il-ki / tup-šik-ki ma-ṣar-tu / ša LUGAL la ni-na-ṣar / LÚv.di*-da*-bé-e / ⸢ṭup*⸣-[šar]-⸢ru*⸣-tu / la [i]-⸢lam*⸣-mu-du
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334224.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334224). 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/P334224/.
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