Position in chronology
SAA 10 234. Mourning Rites (ABL 0026) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Marduk]-šakin-šumi. The best of h[ealth] to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! [May they s]ate the king, my lord, with old age and fullness of life! (10) [...] and the night [of the 2]0th day [...... before Si]rius (b.e. 13) (Break) (r 3) If it is convenient, let the king, my lord, put on white clothes on the 20th, and ask for food at a polished table. (r 10) (As) the king, my lord, knows, it is a house of mourning.[From Mard]uk-šakin-šumi.
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333978/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka mdAMAR.UTU]—GAR—MU / [lu]-u ⸢DI⸣-[mu a]—dan-niš / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / dPA u dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL / EN-ia lik-ru-bu / ši-bu-tú lit-tu-tu / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / [lu]-⸢šab⸣-bi-ú / [x x x] mu-šú / [ša UD] ⸢20*⸣-KÁM / [ina IGI MUL.GAG].SI.SÁ / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x] ki / [x x x] ⸢ṣu⸣-mu-ri / [x x]-ti / šum-mu ta-ri-iṣ / UD 20-KÁM ku-zip-pi / BABBAR-[MEŠ] LUGAL…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333978.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333978). 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/P333978/.
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