Position in chronology
SAA 17 134. Report on Merodach-Baladan (CT 54 150)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Your [servant] Ṣi[llaya]: I would gladly die [for the king of the universe, my lord]! May Uruk [and Eanna bless] the king of the univ[erse, my lord]! Say to the king, my lord: (6) After [...] (7) before [...] (Break) (r 2) the son of Yakin [...] (r 3) to the king, [my] lo[rd ...] (r 4) thither [...] (r 5) Perhaps [the king, my lord, will say] (Rest destroyed or too fragmentary for translation)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[ARAD]-ka m⸢ṣil⸣-[la-a] / a-na di-⸢na⸣-[an LUGAL kiš-šat be-lí-ia] / lul-lik UNUG.[KI u É.AN.NA] / a-na LUGAL ⸢kiš⸣-[šat be-lí-ia lik-ru-bu] / um-ma-a a-⸢na⸣ [LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-ma] / ul-tu [x x x x x x x] / pa-an [x x x x x x x] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x] / DUMU—m⸢ia⸣-[GIN x x x x x x] / a-na LUGAL ⸢be⸣-[lí-ia x x x x x] / a-na ŠÀ-bi [x x x x x x] / mìn-de-e-ma [x x x x x x] / ⸢x⸣+[x x]+⸢x x x⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x] ⸢x x x⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x] am-mì-⸢ni⸣ [x x x x]
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P238509.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238509). 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/P238509/.
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.