Position in chronology
SAA 17 003. Open the Gates of Uruk to my Army! (ABL 0914)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Say to Bulluṭu: thus says the king. I am well, you can be glad. (4) Bel-iqiša, the prelate, speaks positively about you in my presence. Any time he stands in my presence, and [...]. (9) No[w then I am writing to you]: (10) Now [...... very] (11) much [......] (12) and Bel-iqi[ša, the prelate] (13) If Aššur, [Bel and Nabû], my gods [...] (15) to mend [......] (16) to[wards ......] (17) send [your messenger] here [and ...] let him [quickly] c[ome] to [...]! And let them bring your tablet to [...]. Open the gate to [my army] and be totally devoted [...] in this manner! (r 4) Perhaps you say:…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
a-na mbul-lu-ṭu qí-bi-⸢ma⸣ / um-ma LUGAL-ma šul-mu ia-a-ši / lib-ba-ka lu-ú ṭa-ab-ka / [md]EN—BA-šá LÚ.ŠÀ.TAM dib-bi-ka / [DÙG].⸢GA⸣-MEŠ i-na pa-ni-ia / [i]-dab-bu-ub ù im—ma-tim-ma / [i]-⸢na⸣ pa-ni-ia ⸢it*⸣-zi-iz-⸢ma⸣ / [x x]-ti [x x x x x x] / en-na a-du-[ú al-tap-rak-ka] / a-du-ú LÚ.[x x x a-ki-i] / ma-aʾ-de-e [x x x x x x x] / ù mdEN—BA-[šá LÚ.ŠÀ.TAM] / ki-i daš-šur [d.EN ù dAG] /…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237453.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237453). source
Translation excerpted from Dietrich, M. 2003. The Babylonian Correspondence of Sargon and Sennacherib. SAA 17. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa17/P237453/.
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.