Position in chronology
SAA 10 315. The Nature of the King’s Disease (ABL 0391) [from physicians]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Urad-Nanaya. The very best of health to the king, my lord! May Ninurta and Gula give happiness and physical well-being to the king, my lord! (7) The king, my lord, keeps on saying to me: "Why do you not diagnose the nature of this illness of mine and bring about its cure?" — formerly I spoke to the king at the audience and could not clarify his symptoms. Now I am sealing and sending a letter; it should be read to the king, to inform the king, my lord. If it suits the king, my lord, let the haruspices perform an extispicy on account of this. (20) Let the…
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334266/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka mARAD—dna-na-a / lu-u DI-mu ad—dan-niš ad—dan-niš / a-na LUGAL EN-ia dMAŠ u dgu-la / ṭu-ub ŠÀ-bi ṭu-ub UZU / a-na LUGAL EN-ia lid-di-nu / ka-a.a-ma-nu LUGAL be-lí / i-qab-bi-ia ma-a a-ta-a / ši-ki-in GIG-ia an-ni-iu-u / la ta-mar bul-ṭe-e-šú la te-pa-áš / ina pa-ni-ti ina pa-an LUGAL aq-ṭi-bi / sa-kik-ke-e-šú la ú-šá-aḫ-ki-me / ú-ma-a an-nu-rig e-gír-tú / ak-ta-nak…
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334266.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334266). 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/P334266/.
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.