Position in chronology
SAA 17 110. The Son of Yakin Will not Come for the New Year’s Festival (CT 54 111)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......] each other [...] (2) [...... h]e wen[t ...] (3) [......] the Kiši[tes ...] (4) [......] at the foot [...] (5) [......] the Borsi[ppeans, the Sippareans] (and) the Cuthae[ans, saying]: "This year the son of Yak[in] will not come [in] the month Nisan (I)." [He ga]ve [the order]: "The king of Elam has held him back, but you, come yourself and sacrifice your lambs!" (11) I have made inqui[ries]. After he wrote to the son of Yakin, Kuttiya, the son of Šarrani, wanted to return to his presence. He did not [agree but] gave him [40] minas of silver and spoke to him…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x] ⸢a-ḫa⸣-meš [x x] / [x x x x x x x] ⸢it⸣-ta-⸢lak⸣ [x x] / [x x x x x x LÚ].KIŠ.KI-⸢MEŠ⸣ [o] / [x x x x x x] ina GÌR.2 [x x] / [x x x x x x] ⸢LÚ⸣.BÁR.⸢SIPA⸣.[KI-MEŠ] / [LÚ.sip?-par?].KI-MEŠ LÚ.GÚ.DU₈.A.KI-⸢MEŠ⸣ [um-ma] / [i-na] MU.AN.NA a-ga-a DUMU—mia-⸢ki⸣-[ni] / [i-na] ⸢ITI⸣.BARAG ul il-la-ka [ṭè-mu] / [il]-⸢ta⸣-kan um-ma LUGAL KUR.NIM.⸢MA⸣.[KI] / [ik]-⸢te⸣-liš um-ma at-tu-un…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238455.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238455). 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/P238455/.
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.