Position in chronology
SAA 17 159. Sending Tyrians to the King (CT 54 494)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(1) Your servant Nabû-ili: I would gladly die for the king, my lord! Say to the king, my lord: (4) (Regarding) Sagibi and the Tyrians with him, of whom the king wrote: "Who is the eunuch [...] (7) and the barley (and) seeds ... (8) In your house the 'washing of the mouth' (9) [...] wood, houses (Break) (r 1) we will lay [...] (r 2) I want to see ... [...] of the king to [...]. (r 4) I am herewith sending to the king the Ty[rians and the ...] which you set for them, as well as their wardens [...], Rahi and Ia[...]. May the king [...] the [...] and the price [...].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
ARAD-⸢ka⸣ md⸢AG⸣—DINGIR / a-na di-na-an ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí-ia lu-⸢lik⸣ / um-ma-a a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia-a-⸢ma⸣ / msa₁₆-gi-bi ù LÚ.ṣu-ri-⸢ia⸣ / šá it-ti-šú šá LUGAL iš-pur / um-ma man-nu LÚ.⸢SAG x x⸣-aʾ / ù ŠE.BAR ⸢NUMUN? x x⸣ / i-na É-ka LUḪ—KA-MEŠ / [x]+⸢x⸣ GIŠ-MEŠ É-MEŠ / [x x x]+⸢x x⸣ / ni-id-⸢di⸣ [x x x x] / lid? ⸢x x⸣ nu ⸢x⸣ [x x x x] / šá LUGAL a-na ⸢x⸣ [x x x x] / lu-⸢mur⸣ LÚ.ṣu-⸢ri⸣-[ia x x x] /…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237181.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237181). 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/P237181/.
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.