Position in chronology
SAA 09 003. The Covenant of Aššur (ABRT 1 22-23)
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) (Beginning destroyed) (i 5) favour [......] (i 6) give [......]! (i 7) He has taken care of [...], (i 8) he has promoted th[eir ...]. (i 9) Heaven and earth are [well]; Ešarra is [wel]l; Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, is [well]. (i 12) [May the well-b]eing which Esarhaddon [has established] gain footing! (i 14) Aššur has arranged [a feast in] Ešarra. (i 15) [......] of the Inner City (i 16) [...... Es]arhaddon (i 17) [......] (i 18) [...... l]ifts up (i 19) [......] the lands (i 20) [......] before Aššur (i 21) [......] with Esarhaddon (i 22) [......] they come (i 23) [......] they burn…
Source: Parpola, S. 1997. Assyrian Prophecies. SAA 9. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa09/P334927/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x]-⸢an*⸣ / [x x x x x x x]-nu*-ni / [x x x x x x] ṭa*-ab-tú / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ di-na* / [x x x x] ⸢iḫ⸣-ti-ṣi-in* / [x x x-šú]-⸢nu*⸣ us-se-li-a / [DI-mu a]-na AN-e u KI.TIM / [DI]-⸢mu*⸣ a-na É.ŠÁR.RA / [DI-mu] ⸢a*⸣-na maš-šur—PAB—AŠ MAN KUR—aš-šur / [šul]-⸢mu⸣ šá maš-šur—PAB—AŠ / [iš-kun]-u*-ni* ina UGU GÌR.2 lil-lik / [i-sin-nu ina]…
Scholarly note
Neo-Assyrian prophetic oracle, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 9, 1997). ORACC text P334927.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334927). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1997. Assyrian Prophecies. SAA 9. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa09/P334927/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.