Position in chronology
SAA 16 128. The Merchants are Systematically Scaring Me (CT 53 016)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(1) To the king of the lands, my lord: your servant Itti-Šamaš-balaṭu. Good health to the king, my lord! May Aššur, Šamaš, Bel, Nabû, Nergal, Ištar of Nineveh (and) Ištar of Arbela give lo[n]g days, everlasting years, happiness, physical well-being (and) joy to the king, my lord. (9) From where the sun rises [to whe]re it sets, [he (= Šamaš) has brought] (all lands) [to submission be]fore [the feet] of the king, my lord. (13) [...] this land (Break) (r 1) [t]a[b]let [... There are many] in the entourage of the king, my lord, who have invested silver together with the merchants in this house…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL KUR.KUR EN-ia / ⸢ARAD⸣-ka mKI—dUTU—ba-la-ṭu / lu-ú DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / daš-šur dUTU dEN dPA dU.GUR / d15 ša ⸢NINA⸣.KI d15 ša URU.arba-⸢ìl⸣ / UD-mu ⸢GÍD.DA⸣-MEŠ MU.AN.NA-MEŠ / da-⸢ra⸣-a-ta ṭu-ub ŠÀ-bi / ṭu-ub ⸢UZU⸣ ḫu-du-ú ŠÀ-bi / a-na ⸢LUGAL EN-ia lid⸣-di-⸢nu⸣ / ⸢TAv bé-et dUTU i-nap-pa-ḫa-an-nu⸣ / [a-du]-⸢ú⸣ i-rab-bu-un-nu / [ina sa]-pal [GÌR.2] ša LUGAL EN-ía / [ú-sak-ni]-iš /…
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P313431.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P313431). 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/P313431/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.
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.