Position in chronology
SAA 17 118. The Son of Yakin [in Babylon]; Report on Bit-Dakuri (CT 54 114)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) To the king, [our lord: your servants] Nabû-šumu-[lišir and Aqar-Bel-lumur.] May [the king, our lord, be] well! Say t[o the king, our lord: The fortress] and the troops [of the king] are well. [The mood] of the people of the land is go[od. The king], our lord, can be [glad]. (8) [Concerning the news] of the son of Yakin: [he is] in [Babylon]. (10) As to the news of the Da[kureans, NN], the son of Raha[...] (12) of Lanšê [...] (13) the scribe of [...] (14) and Nabû-uša[llim...] (15) because of the capture [...] (16) [..] he has caugh[t him ...] (17) [...] their [...] (18) [... c]am[e ...] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL [be-lí-i-ni ARAD-MEŠ-ka] / mdAG—MU—[SI.SÁ u mKAL—dEN—lu-mur] / lu-ú šu-[lum a-na LUGAL be-lí-i-ni] / um-ma-a a-⸢na⸣ [LUGAL be-lí-i-ni-a-ma] / šu-lum a-na [URU.ḪAL.ṢU.MEŠ] / ù e-mu-qí [šá LUGAL ṭè-em] / šá UN-MEŠ KUR šu-⸢lum⸣ [ŠÀ-ba šá LUGAL] / be-lí-i-ni lu-ú [ṭa-a-bi áš-šú ṭè-em] / šá DUMU—mia-GIN ⸢ina⸣ [TIN.TIR.KI šú-ú] / áš-šú ṭè-em šá LÚ.⸢da⸣-[ku-ru mx x x] / DUMU-šú šá mra-ḫa-[x x…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238457.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238457). 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/P238457/.
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.