Position in chronology
SAA 16 099. Information on Accomplices of Aššur-da’’in-aplu (ABL 0872)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(Beginning destroyed) (1) If [......] (2) I have heard that all the ordinances which were dissolved have become stable again. May Nabû and Tašmetu, the gods of this house, bless the king, his offspring and his offspring's offspring. (8) The scribe Kabtî, a servant of Aššur-da''in-aplu son of Shalmaneser (III), who gave me the Aramaic letter which I gave to the king, my lord, is saying to me: "Regarding the offender about whom I spoke to the king, my lord, his son enters and leaves the Palace. He is telling me: 'If he [ ...s] these [wo]rds to me, I [will tell them] to you.' (r 9) "8 [..]s who gave [... to] the king, my lord, [......] (r 12) "a brib[e ......] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
šúm-ma ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x]+⸢x x⸣ / a-se-me ri-⸢ik-sa-ti⸣ / am—mar ša pa-aṭ-ru-u-ni / i-sa-ḫu-ru i-ku-u-nu / dPA u dtaš-me-tum DINGIR-MEŠ ša É / ḫa-an-ni-i a-na LUGAL a-na NUMUN-šú / a-na NUMUN NUMUN-šú lik-ru-bu / mkab-ti-i LÚ.A.BA / ARAD ša maš-šur—da-in—DUMU.UŠ DUMU mDI-ma-nu—MAŠ / ša e-gír-tú ar-me-tú id-din-an-ni / a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ad-din-u-ni / i-qab-bi-ʾa-a / ma-a ina UGU EN—ḫi-iṭ-ṭi / ša…
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P334599.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334599). 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/P334599/.
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.