Position in chronology
SAA 10 295. Fall of the Heavens (PBS 7 132) [from exorcists]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) A word of the king to Urad-Gula: (3) I am well, you can be glad. (4) In that writing-board [wh]ich you dispatched to me via Ahi-duri there [were ...] phylacteries [...] (9) And the pertinent ritual is written (there) as follows: (10) "Incantation: ... Ninkilim, exorcist of Ninurta! Fall of the heavens." What is this? The heavens exist forever. (Break) (r 1) Write down and [send me what] they say even (if) there is no alternative [...] how it is p[erformed]. And write down and send (this) via [NN].
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P258805/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-bat ⸢LUGAL⸣ / a-na mARAD—dgu-la / DI-mu a.a-ši ŠÀ-ba-ka / lu DÙG.GA-ka ina ŠÀ-bi GIŠ.ZU / šu-u ⸢ša⸣ ina ŠU.2 mPAB?—⸢BÀD?⸣ / tu-še-bi-la-an-ni / me-UGU-šú-nu ⸢x⸣+[x x]-a-te / i-na ŠÀ-bi [x x x] / ù DÙ.DÙ.BI-šu šá-ṭi-⸢ir⸣ / ma-a ÉN ŠUR dNIN.KILIM MAŠ.MAŠ / dMAŠ ŠUB-ti AN-e mi-i-nu šú-u / ka-a.a-[ma]-⸢nu⸣ AN-e i-ba-ši / [x x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x] / [ša] i-qab-[bu-u-ni] / šu-ṭur [še-bi-la] / ù la-a pu-ḫi ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / i-ba-ši a-ki šá in-[x x x] / ù i-na ŠU.2 m⸢x x⸣+[x x x] / šu-ṭur šup-ra
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P258805.
Attribution
Image: CBS 01471 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P258805). 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/P258805/.
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