Position in chronology
SAA 10 201. Curing the Queen Mother (ABL 0549) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Adad-[šumu-uṣur]. Good health to the ki[ng, my lord]! May Nabû and Marduk, and the [great] gods of heaven and earth very greatly [bless the king, my lord]! (7) The mother of the king is doing ve[ry] we[ll] indeed; the king, [my lord, can be] glad [indeed]. (Break) (r 3) [The ritual] "Sick [...]"; [the incantation "E]a, Šamaš, [Asalluhi]" of (the ritual) "Nullifying the Curse"; the incantation "You, River, [Creator of Everything]" — she has performed (these) 10 tablets together wit[h their rituals], and is very [well]. The ki[ng, my lord], can be glad indeed.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334374/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL ⸢be⸣-[lí-ia] / ARAD-ka mdIM—[MU—PAB] / lu DI-mu a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / dAG dAMAR.UTU DINGIR-[MEŠ GAL-MEŠ] / šá AN-e u KI.TIM [a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / a—dan-niš a—dan-niš [lik-ru-bu] / MÍ.AMA—LUGAL a—⸢dan*⸣-[niš] / a—dan-niš ⸢šul⸣-[mu] / ⸢lib-bu⸣ šá LUGAL [EN-ia] / [a—dan-niš a]—dan-niš [lu-u DÙG.GA] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / [x x x] ⸢ia lak*⸣ [x x] / [x x x].GIG.⸢GA*⸣-[MEŠ] / [ÉN dÉ].A dUTU…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334374.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334374). 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/P334374/.
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.