Position in chronology
SAA 10 220. The Substitute King Should Go to his Fate (ABL 0359) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Adad-[šumu-uṣur]. Good health to the k[ing, my lord]! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! (7) Concerning the substitute king about whom the king, my lord, wrote to me: "How many days should he sit (on the throne)?" — (10) we waited for a solar eclipse, (but) the eclipse did not take place. Now, if the gods are seen together on the 15th day, he may go to his fate on the 16th. (r 4) Alternatively, (if) it is agreeable to the king, my lord, let him complete the 100 days.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334235/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL [be-lí-ia] / ARAD-ka mdIM—[MU—PAB] / lu-u DI-mu a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / dAG u dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / lik-ru-bu / ina UGU LUGAL—pu-u-ḫi / ša LUGAL be-lí iš-pur-an-ni / ma-a ki ma-ṣi UD-MEŠ / lu-ši-ib ina IGI AN.MI / dUTU nu-us-sa-ad-gíl / AN.MI dUTU la iš-kun / ú-ma-a šum-ma / UD 15-KAM DINGIR-MEŠ / a-ḫe-iš em-mu-ru / UD 16-KAM a-na šim*-te / li-il-lik / ú-la*-a ina IGI LUGAL / be-lí-ia ma-ḫi-ir / 01-me* UD-me lu-ma-al-li
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334235.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334235). 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/P334235/.
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