SAA 08 388. Predicting an Eclipse of the Moon (RMA 273) [eclipses]

~670 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P240250

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 8

High confidence

(1) On the 14th day the moon will make an eclipse. It (predicts) evil for Elam and the Westland, good for the king my lord. Let the king my lord be happy. (7) (Already) when Venus became visible, I said to the king my lord: "An eclipse will take place." (r 4) From Rašil the older, servant of [the king].

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

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

Transliteration

UD 14-KÁM AN.MI d30 i-šak-kan / ḪUL šá KUR.NIM.MA.KI / u KUR—MAR.TU.KI / SIG₅ šá LUGAL be-lí-ia / ŠÀ-bi šá LUGAL be-lí-ia / lu-ú ṭa-a-bi / ul-tu MUL.dil-bat / in-nam-mar / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / aq-ta-bi / um-ma AN.MI iš-šak-kan / šá mTUK-⸢ši⸣—DINGIR / ARAD šá [LUGAL pa]-nu-ú

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 P240250.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P240250). 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/P240250/.

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.