Position in chronology
SAA 10 240. Report on Eclipse Rituals, and a Suggestion (ABL 0023) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To] the king, [my] lord: [your servant] Marduk-šakin-šumi. [Good he]alth to the king, my lord! May [Nabû and] Marduk bless the king, my lord! (5) 3 'hand-lifting' prayers (to be recited) before [Nusku], (6) 3 before the moon, 3 before the [Pleiades], (7) 2 before Sirius, (8) 2 b[efo]re Ma[rs], (9) 2 b[efore] V[ega], (10) 2 be[fore the st]ar [....], (11) 1 be[fore the star....], (12) 1 bef[ore the star....], (13) the incantation "Ea, [Šamaš and Asalluhi]" belonging to the apotropaic ritual against all kinds of evil, as well as the apotropaic ritual (called) "If the Moon and the Sun have…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P333975/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na] LUGAL be-lí-[ia] / [ARAD]-⸢ka⸣ mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—⸢MU⸣ / [lu-u] ⸢DI⸣-mu a-na LUGAL be-lí-⸢ia⸣ / d[PA u] dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN-ía lik-⸢ru⸣-[bu] / 03 ⸢ŠU⸣.ÍL.LÁ.KÁM-MEŠ ša IGI d[PA.TÚG] / 03 ša IGI d30 03 ša IGI d[7.BI] / 02 :. ⸢ša⸣ IGI MUL.GAG.SI.SÁ / 02 :. ⸢ša IGI⸣ MUL.ṣal-⸢bat⸣-[a-nu] / 02 :. ⸢ša⸣ [IGI] ⸢MUL⸣.be*-[lit—TI.LA] / 02 :. ša [IGI] ⸢MUL⸣.[x x x x] / 01 :. ša [IGI MUL.x x x x] / 01…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P333975.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P333975). 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/P333975/.
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.