Position in chronology
SAA 16 212. Good Advice (CT 53 294)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) Now [......] (2) I said: "[......] (3) of [your]se[lf ...] (4) I said: "[......] (5) [......] (6) I said: "Wh[y ...] (7) the king [......] (r 1) [......] (r 2) [He sa]id: "Wh[y don't you agree] (r 3) "to feed an aṣūdu-bowl [to ...]? O[f ...] (r 5) of the deputy [...] (r 6) Why [......] (Break) (e. 1) [The ...]s of the king [...]. (e. 2) That is a ve[ry] good advice.
Source: Luukko, M. & Van Buylaere, G. 2002. The Political Correspondence of Esarhaddon. SAA 16. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa16/P313709/
Why it matters
Transliteration
ú-ma-⸢a⸣ [x x x x x] / nu-uk [x x x x x] / ša ra-⸢mi⸣-[ni-x x x] / nu-uk [x x x x x] / ⸢qa⸣-[x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / ⸢nu-uk⸣ a-⸢ta⸣-[a x x x] / ⸢LUGAL? x⸣+[x x x x] / ⸢x x⸣ [x x x x x] / ⸢ma⸣-a a-ta-[a x x x] / [ma]-a a-ṣu-du [x x x] / ⸢la⸣ tu-šá-kal ⸢ša⸣ [x x x] / ša LÚ.02-⸢e⸣ [x x x x] / a-ta-a [x x x x x] / e-[x x x x x x x] / [x x x]-MEŠ ša LUGAL ⸢it⸣-[x x x] / ⸢mì⸣-il-ku šú-u SIG₅ a—[dan-niš]
Scholarly note
Political letter at the court of Esarhaddon, edited by Mikko Luukko & Greta Van Buylaere (SAA 16, 2002). ORACC text P313709.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313709). 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/P313709/.
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.