Position in chronology
SAA 10 259. Who to Come out Next? (ABL 0364) [from exorcists]
About this tablet
A working letter from two of the most senior scholars at the Assyrian court — the exorcists Adad-šumu-uṣur and Marduk-šakin-šumi — to their king, most likely Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal in the seventh century BCE. The king has asked them to say which of his ritual personnel should take their turn next; the scholars politely push the question back, saying that the king himself knows who has already done his duty and who has not, and that they are in no position to judge. It ends by referring the matter to the gods Bel (Marduk) and Nabû. A small but revealing glimpse of court protocol: even royal experts avoid deciding who is in favour and who is not.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
To the king, our lord, from your servants Adad-šumu-uṣur and Marduk-šakin-šumi: we wish the king good health, and may Nabû and Marduk bless him. About the men the king wrote to us concerning — he asked, "Aren't you going to tell me which of them should come out next?" Our answer: the rest, the ones who haven't yet performed, can come out tomorrow and do it. But the king himself knows who has performed and who hasn't; how would we know? Under the king's protection, let Bel and Nabû single them out — then let them come out and perform.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineTo 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) Concerning the men of the king, our lord, about whom he wrote to us: "Will you not indicate which ones are to come out?" — (13) the others, who have not performed (the rites), should come out tomorrow and perform (them). (17) The king, our lord, knows which ones have performed and which ones have not performed. We — how should we know? (24) Under the protection of the king, may Bel and Nabû point (them) out; let them come out and perform (the rites).
Our translation engine — Opus 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Engine notes
read from photo6 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
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.earth/artifacts, P334240). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-opus-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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