SAA 08 341. Morning First of Mars in Gemini (RMA 231) [planetary]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P237860

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 8

High confidence

(1) [If] in Tammuz (IV) Mars becomes visible: the cemetery of warriors will enlarge. (3) [If] a planet stands in the north: there will be deaths; attack of the king of Akkad against the enemy land. (5) If a strange star (= Mars) comes close to Gemini: the king will die, and there will be hostility. (7) If Mars [......]. (r 1) If Mars [......]: in that year the king of Ela[m ...]. (r 3) May the lord of kings be everlasting! (r 4) From Ašaredu the younger.

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] ina ITI.ŠU dṣal-bat-a-nu IGI-ir / KI.NÁ qu-ra-du DAGAL-iš / [1] ⸢d⸣UDU.IDIM ina IM.SI.SÁ GUB-iz / ÚŠ-MEŠ GÁL-MEŠ ZI-bu LUGAL URI.KI ana KUR KÚR / 1 MUL.MÌN-ma ana MUL.MAŠ.TAB.BA TE-ḫi / LUGAL ÚŠ-ma MÍ.KÚR GÁL-ši / 1 dṣal-bat-[a-nu x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] / 1 dṣal-bat-a-nu [x x x x] / ina MU BI LUGAL NIM.[MA.KI x x] / EN LUGAL-MEŠ lu da-ri / šá ma-šá-ri-du qa-at-nu

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 P237860.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237860). 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/P237860/.

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.