Position in chronology
SAA 16 070. May the Horse not Die! (CT 53 178)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(1) May [Nabû and Marduk] bless the crown [prince], my lord. (2) [Concer]ning that horse, [Urdu]-Issar is now telling me: "[D]o [as] you were ordered to do!" (5) Hear me, O crown prince, [my] lord! I am your [servan]t. May it [ha]ppen to the [crown] prince that [...], may [the horse n]ot die! (r 1) [Th]at [...] (official) is saying: "Why [the ho]rses that are under [me ......]? (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[dPA u dAMAR.UTU a-na DUMU]—⸢LUGAL EN-ía⸣ lik-ru-bu / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ ANŠE.KUR.RA am-mì-i ú-ma-a / [mARAD?]—⸢d⸣15 iq-ṭi-bi-a ma-a ki-i / [ša] ṭè-e-mu šak-na-ka-ni / [e]-⸢pu⸣-uš a-ni-na DUMU—LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣ / ⸢ARAD⸣-ka ⸢a⸣-na-ku a-na DUMU—[LUGAL] / ⸢lil?⸣-li-ki ⸢x x⸣ [x ANŠE.KUR.RA?] / ⸢la⸣ i-mu-u-at ⸢LÚ⸣.[x x x] / [am]-mì-ú ma-a a-ta-⸢a⸣ [o] / [ANŠE].⸢KUR⸣.RA-MEŠ ša šap-a-lu-[a?]
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P313593.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313593). 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/P313593/.
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.