SAA 08 165. New Moon on 1st Day (RMA 016) [lunar]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336377

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 8

High confidence

(1) If the moon becomes visible on the 1st day: reliable speech; the land will become happy. (3) If the day reaches its normal length: a reign of long days. (5) Adar (XII) and Elul (VI) are beginning of the year, as Nisan (I) and Tishri (VII) are at the beginning of the year. (r 2) The moon has sent a favorable omen on the length of the days of the reign to the king my lord. (r 6) From Aššur-šarra[ni].

State Archives of Assyria, volume 8 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.

Transliteration

1 30 UD 01-KÁM IGI.LAL KA GI.NA / ŠÀ KUR DÙG-ab / 1 UD ana ŠID-MEŠ-šú GÍD.DA / BALA UD-MEŠ GÍD.DA-MEŠ / ITI.ŠE ITI.KIN SAG MU.AN.NA / ki-i ša ITI.BARAG ITI.DU₆ / ina SAG MU.AN.NA / d30 GISKIM SIG₅-tim / ša GÍD.DA UD-me BALA / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / i-sa-ap-ra / ša mdaš-šur—LUGAL-a-[ni]

Scholarly note

Astrological report from a court scholar to an Assyrian king, edited by Hermann Hunger (SAA 8, 1992). Celestial and meteorological observation correlated with omens. ORACC text P336377.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336377). source
Translation excerpted from Hunger, H. 1992. Astrological Reports to Assyrian Kings. SAA 8. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa08/P336377/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~1800 BCE

Plimpton 322

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.

~650 BCE

Epic of Gilgamesh, Tablet XI (the Flood)

A major witness to the Mesopotamian Flood tradition and its relationship to later biblical literature. The date of this particular copy must be distinguished from the older history of the story.

~2300 BCE

Disk of Enheduanna

An object naming and depicting a powerful priestess and royal daughter around 2300 BCE. Enheduanna is also a landmark in named literary authorship, but that literary legacy must be distinguished from this disk’s dedication.