Position in chronology
SAA 17 106. The Son of Yakin in Babylon; Nabu-hamatua Attacks the Litamu (ABL 0436)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant Aqar-Bel-lum]ur. [Good health to the king], my lord! [Sa]y to the king, my lord: (5) News of the son of Yakin: he is [in] Babylon. (6) Furthermore, [I have] heard that Nabû-hamatua — and he has troops with him — has ... marched downstream all the way to the Litamu. Firstly, they are saying: "Why do the Assyrians keep attacking our towns? We shall go and attack the cities of Bit-Dakuri." (15) Secondly, it is being said that they say: "Isn't it actually good that he (Nabû-hamatua) came? When they pull themselves back, we shall have entered Babylon." (r 2)…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia ARAD-ka mKAL—dEN—lu]-⸢mur⸣ / [lu-ú šu-lum a-na LUGAL be]-lí-ia / [um-ma]-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-ma / [ṭè]-e-mu šá DUMU—mia-ki-nu / [ina] TIN.TIR.KI šu-ú ù / [al]-⸢te⸣-mu um-ma a-na šu-pa-lu / a-na na-ṣi IGI mdAG—ḫa-mat-ú-a / ù e-mu-qa i-ba-áš-ši / it-ti-šú a-di LÚ.li-ta-mu / it-ta-lak 01-šú um-ma* mi-nam-ma / KUR—aš-šur.KI a-na UGU URU-MEŠ-i-ni / it-te-né-eb-bu-ú um-ma /…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237788.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237788). 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/P237788/.
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.