Position in chronology
SAA 10 259. Who to Come out Next? (ABL 0364) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, our lord: your servants Adad-šumu-uṣur and Marduk-šakin-šumi. Good health to the king, our lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, our lord! (8) As to the people about whom the king, our lord, wrote to us: "Can you not specify which (of them) are to come out?" — (13) Those who have not performed (the ritual) should come out tomorrow and perform it. The king, our lord, knows who has performed it and who has not; whence would we know? (r 10) May Bel and Nabû indicate (the right persons) in the shadow of the king, and let them come forth and perform (the ritual).
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334240/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoTo the king, our lord — your servants Adad-šumu-uṣur and Marduk-šakin-šumi: May there be well-being for the king, our lord! May Nabû (and) Marduk bless the king, our lord! Concerning the people about whom the king, our lord, wrote to us: "Is it not you who are holding back? Which ones have come out? Which others have not performed (their duties)? Let those who have not (yet) come out come out tomorrow — let them perform (their duties)." The king, our lord, knows: which ones have performed (their duties), (and) which ones have not performed (their duties). As for us — we do not know who (to assign). In the shadow/protection of the king, may Bel (and) Nabû guide (them); let them come out (and) let them perform (their duties).
6 uncertain terms ↓
- a.a-ú-ti / a.a-ʾu-ú-ti — Neo-Assyrian interrogative pronoun, 'who?' or 'which ones?'. The spelling with glottal stop marker is characteristic of late Neo-Assyrian epistolary dialect. Could also carry a sense of 'whoever' (indefinite relative).
- tu-šaḫ*-ka-ma — The asterisk in the transliteration signals a damaged or uncertain sign. Verb from šakānu D-stem or similar; rendered 'are holding back / detaining'. The precise reading is uncertain due to sign damage noted by the editor.
- ina ši-a-ri — 'Tomorrow' (šēru); could also mean 'in the morning'. Context suggests temporal scheduling of personnel duties.
- ina GIŠ.MI LUGAL — Literally 'in the shadow of the king' — a standard formulaic expression for royal protection/patronage. GIŠ.MI = ṣillu, 'shadow, shade, protection'.
- dEN dAG lu-šá-id-du — Bel (= Marduk) and Nabû — the writers invoke divine guidance. lu-šá-id-du from adû/wadû, 'to lead, guide'; the precise nuance ('guide them out', 'direct them') is uncertain in context.
- mdIM—MU—PAB / mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU — The senders' names: mdIM—MU—PAB = Adad-šumu-uṣur (well-known exorcist at the Assyrian court); mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU = Marduk-šakin-šumi. Both are identified in the SAA 10 prosopography.
Reasoning ↓
Layer 1 (visual): The photograph shows a small lenticular tablet (lens-shaped, ~4–5 cm) with cuneiform on both obverse (upper centre image) and reverse (lower centre image). The clay surface appears well-fired and reddish-brown. The wedge impressions are reasonably clear under photographic lighting, though the resolution is insufficient to read individual signs confidently. The obverse shows densely packed horizontal lines of small Neo-Assyrian script; the reverse likewise. The British Museum accession ink on the bottom edge reads '83-1-18, 34', consistent with BM holdings for ABL 0364 (SAA 10 259). The edges (shown left and right in the top panel) bear additional signs continuing the text. No obvious major physical damage or lacunae are visible; the tablet appears substantially complete. Layer 2 (transliteration): The text is a standard Neo-Assyrian epistolary formula followed by a substantive query about personnel (likely ritual specialists — exorcists, given the series SAA 10). The key crux is 'a.a-ú-ti / ú-ṣu-ni-ni' and cognate phrases — 'a.a-ʾu-ú-ti' is the interrogative 'who?/which ones?' in Neo-Assyrian, referring to which individuals have or have not carried out their duties. Cross-check: Individual signs cannot be verified at this resolution, but the tablet's format and size are consistent with the letter genre as catalogued. The transliteration is drawn from the SAA 10 critical edition (Parpola 1993), which is the standard reference for this text.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3264 in / 1198 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ni / ARAD-MEŠ-ka mdIM—MU—PAB / mdAMAR.UTU—GAR—MU / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL / be-lí-ni dAG dAMAR.UTU / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ni / lik-ru-bu / ina UGU UN-MEŠ šá LUGAL / be-lí-ni iš-pur-an-na-ši-ni / ma la at-tu-nu-ú / tu-šaḫ*-ka-ma / a.a-ú-ti ú-ṣu-ni-ni / ša-ni-ʾu-ú-ti / ša la e-pu-šu-u-ni / ina ši-a-ri lu-ṣu-u-ni / le-e-pu-šu / LUGAL be-lí-ni ú-da / a.a-ʾu-ú-ti / e-pu-šu-u-ni / a.a-ʾu-ú-ti / la e-pu-šu-u-ni / a-ni-in-nu / a.a-ka nu-ú-da / ina GIŠ.MI LUGAL dEN / dAG lu-šá-id-du / lu-uṣ-ṣu-u-ni / le-e-pu-šú
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334240.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334240). 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/P334240/.
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