Position in chronology
SAA 10 170. Predicting an Eclipse of the Sun (ABL 0477) [from astrologers]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Concerning the solar eclipse about which the king wrote to me: "Will it or will it not take place? Send a definite word!" (6) An eclipse of the sun, like one of the moon, never escapes me; should it not be clear to me and should I have failed (to observe it), I would not find out about it. (r 5) Now since it is the month to watch the sun and the king is in the open country, for that reason I wrote to the king: "The king should pay attention, whether it occurs or not."
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P237237/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na UGU AN.MI / dUTU šá LUGAL iš-pu-ra-an-[ni] / um-ma i-šak-ka-nu / ul i-šak-ka-nu / a-mat pa-ri-is-tú / šup-ra AN.MI dUTU / ki-i šá d30 / a-na ŠU.2-ia / ul a-ṣi / it-ti-i / la eb-bi-ma / u am-qu-tam-ma / ul a-lam-mad-su / en-na áš-šú šá ITI / EN.NUN šá dUTU / šu-ú u LUGAL ina EDIN šu-u / a-na UGU-ḫi ana LUGAL / áš-pu-ra um-ma / LUGAL PI.2 / liš-kun-ma / ki-i i-ba-áš-ši / u ki-i ia-aʾ-num*
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P237237.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237237). 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/P237237/.
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