Position in chronology
SAA 16 140. Idri-aha’u has Brought the Shoes (ABL 0775)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 16(1) To the king, my lord: your servants Nabû-ra'im-nišešu (and) Salamanu. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû (and) Marduk bless the king. (6) Idri-aha'u came and brought the shoes in the evening of the 16th. On the 17th, we s[et out] from [M]alaku. [In D]unni-Šamaš [......] (Break) (r 1) As to the cara[van]s of which the king, my lord, said: "They are ...ing much from here (and) there" — we will come quickly. (r 7) Umban-kidinni is [t]elling us: "We would like to go by the road inside the country (= Assyria)." We cannot bring him there without the king('s permission). (r 12) Let the king write us what to do, (and) let a messenger stay at our disposal in Der. Idri-aha'u left for the king, my lord, in the evening of the 17th.
State Archives of Assyria, volume 16 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-MEŠ-ka mdPA—ÁG—UN-MEŠ-šú / msa-la-ma-nu lu-u DI-mu / a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / dPA dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL lik-ru-bu / UD 16-KÁM nu-bat-tu / mad-ra—a-ḫa-ú it-tal-ka / KUŠ.DA.E.SÍR na-aṣ-ṣa / UD 17-KÁM TAv [ŠÀ URU].⸢ma*⸣-li-ki / nu-⸢tam⸣-[mì-iš ina URU].⸢dun⸣-ni—dšá-maš / ⸢ša⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x x x x x x] / bat [x x x x x x x x x x]-ni / ina UGU…
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P334548.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334548). 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/P334548/.
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.