Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 10 347. Observing and Interpreting an Eclipse of the Moon (ABL 0337) [miscellaneous]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P334217

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Mar-Issar. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! May the great gods bestow long days, well-being and joy upon the king, my lord! (5) Concerning the lunar eclipse about which the king, my lord, wrote to me, it was observed in the cities of Akkad, Borsippa, and Nippur. What we saw in Akkad corresponded to the other (observation)s. A bronze ket[tledrum] was set up; the darkness [......] (Break) (r 3) I have extracted the [relevant] interpretation written on the tablet and s[ent] it, together with this letter, to the…

Source: Parpola, S. 1993. Letters from Assyrian and Babylonian Scholars. SAA 10. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa10/P334217/

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na LUGAL EN-ía ARAD-ka mDUMU—d15 / lu-u DI-mu a-na MAN EN-ía dPA u dAMAR.UTU / a-na MAN EN-ía lik-ru-bu UD-me ar-ku-te / ṭu-ub UZU ù ḫu-ud ŠÀ-bi DINGIR-MEŠ GAL-MEŠ / a-na MAN EN-ía liš-ru-ku ina UGU AN.MI d30 / ša MAN be-lí iš-pur-an-ni ina URU.ak-kad / BÁR.SIPA.KI ù EN.LÍL.KI ma-ṣar-tú / it-ta-aṣ-ru ki-i ša ina ŠÀ URU.ak-kad / né-mur-u-ni a-ḫe-iš e-tap-la ⸢LI*⸣.[LI.ÌZ] URUDU* / is-sa-ak-nu…

Scholarly note

Letter from a scholar (astrologer, exorcist, physician, lamentation-priest) to Esarhaddon or Ashurbanipal, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 10, 1993). ORACC text P334217.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334217). 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/P334217/.

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