Position in chronology
SAA 10 183. Extispicy on the Roof of the Temple of Marduk (ABL 1278) [from diviners]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Concerning the hoopoe about which you said: "It has been sent as a message" — and concerning the temple of Marduk, we shall see a good month, and it (the ritual) should be performed; he does not know. (3) Elul (VI) is a good month. (4) Also, concerning the ritual of the haruspex, he does not know about the 2nd day; again, it is good. Let it be performed and let us be confident. (6) Also, if it is feasible, why don't the guards and Perhu keep watch there, on account of a matter like this? (r 1) Alternatively, if it is not good to let the men go to the roof of the temple at dawn, some…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P237937/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ina UGU eš-še-bu-u.MUŠEN šá taq-bu-u-ni / ma-a* šip-ru šú-u šap-ir ina UGU É—dAMAR.UTU / ITI DÙG.GA né-mur ù li-in-né-piš šu-ú / la u-da ITI.KIN DÙG.GA ù ina UGU dul-li / šá LÚ.ḪAL a-na UD 02-KAM la u-da tu-ra DÙG.GA-ma / li-in-né-piš-ma nir-ḫu-uṣ ù šum-ma / ta-ri-iṣ a-ta-a EN EN.NUN-MEŠ mpi-ir-ḫu / ina ŠÀ-bi la i-na-aṣ-ṣu-ru TA pa-an / a-bi-te šá ki-i an-ni-i / ú-la-a LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ la DÙG.GA ana…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P237937.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237937). 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/P237937/.
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.