Position in chronology
SAA 10 340. Kettledrum Performance Before Mars and Saturn (ABL 0612) [from lamentation priests]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Urad-Ea. Good health to the king, my lord]! May [Nabû], Marduk, [Sin and] Nik[kal] bless [the king], my lord! (9) On the 25th day, at night, the kettledrum will be placed before [Ne]rg[al] upon the garments of the king. At the same time we shall perform the (chants) of Saturn. The god will [bless] the king, my lord, on account of the [pr]aise. (Rest destroyed)
Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334424/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [ARAD-ka mARAD—É.A] / [lu-u DI-mu] / [a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / [dAG u] dAMAR.UTU / [d30 u] dNIN.[GAL] / [a-na LUGAL] be-lí-⸢ia⸣ / lik-ru-bu / UD 25-KÁM ina nu-bat-[ti] / LI.LI.ÌZ ina IGI d[U].⸢GUR⸣ / ina UGU ku-zip-pi / ša LUGAL iš-šak-kan / ša dUDU.IDIM.SAG.UŠ / is-se-niš / né-pu-uš / DINGIR ina UGU-ḫi / [da?]-⸢li⸣-li / [a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ia / [i-kar-rab]
Scholarly note
Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334424.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334424). 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/P334424/.
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