Position in chronology
SAA 17 074. [Return?] to the Paternal House (CT 54 100)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) To [Sargon, king of the universe, my lord: Your servant] Balassu. May [Nabû and Marduk] bless [the king, my lord]! Say [to the king, my lord]: (4) [I am herewith sending] my tablet [for the well-being of the king, my lord]. (5) Under the protection of Bel and [Nabû, the gods] of the king, my lord, the [...] (7) and the message [...] (8) whom my lord lead away, [...] (9) he has added for me, [...] (10) to the house of my father [...] (11) and the drain pi[pes .......]. (12) The ki[ng, my lord, can be glad]. (13) Now [...] (Rest destroyed)
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⸣ [LUGAL—GIN LUGAL kiš-šat be-lí-ia ARAD-ka] / mba-⸢laṭ-su⸣ d[AG u dAMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia] / lik-ru-⸢bu⸣ um-[ma-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma] / ṭup-pi a-na ⸢šul⸣-[mu LUGAL be-lí-ia al-tap-ra] / ina GIŠ.⸢MI⸣ dEN u [d.AG x x x x x x x x] / šá LUGAL be-⸢lí⸣-ia [x x x x x x x x x] / ù na-áš-par-ti [x x x x x x x x] / šá be-lí áš-pu-uk [x x x x x x x x] / ú-ṣi-ban-ni [x x x x x x x x] / a-na…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238441.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P238441). 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/P238441/.
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.