Position in chronology
SAA 16 066. Fragment Mentioning Kar-Mullissi (CT 53 976)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(Beginning destroyed) (1) [t]o the king, my lord [......] (2) [...] I am not like that [... The king, my lord], wr[ote t]o his servant as follows: "He has [...] troops there; [do] no[t concea]l from me anything that you s[e]e (or) h[ear]" — have I conce[aled] [...] fr[om ......]? (8) [As t]o [the ... about wh]ich the king, [my] lor[d, wrote to me]: "[......] house [...] (10) [......] one third [...] (11) [... ki]ngs [...] (12) [... the king], my lord, [...] (Break) (r 1) [......] the palace [...] (r 2) [(...) the ...]s which [...] (r 3) [... has] bound [... i]n Kar-Mullis[si]; whether [they] say [...] [o]r do not say, what [...]? (r 6) [... the son]s of the king, my lord, [are] my sons [...] (r 7) [...; ...]-šarru-uṣur [...] (r 8) [... yo]ur [......] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[a]-⸢na LUGAL EN-ía⸣ [x x x x x x] / [x] lu la maš-la-ku ⸢šú ma x x x⸣ [LUGAL be-lí] / [a]-na ARAD-šú ki-i an-ni-e i-⸢sa⸣-[ap-ra] / ma-a LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ ina ŠÀ-bi us-⸢sar?-x⸣+[x x] / ma-a mar ta-⸢mar⸣-u-[ni] ⸢x⸣ [x x x] / TAv pa-ni-ía ⸢la⸣ [tu-pa]-⸢zar TAv⸣ [x x x] / up-ta-⸢zi?⸣-[x x x x]+⸢x⸣ a [x x x] / [ina] ⸢UGU?⸣ [x x] ⸢ša?⸣ LUGAL be-[lí x x x] / [x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ É a ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [x x x x…
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P314385.
Attribution
Image: BM 099055 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P314385). source
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. & Van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa16/P314385/.
Related tablets
Related sources
A window into the world's first total state. The Ur III administration tracked every animal, every worker, every shekel — for a population in the millions. The level of paperwork was not exceeded until the modern era.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.