Position in chronology
SAA 17 172. King Retreats from Der, Fortresses Burnt (CT 54 008)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 17(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... sa]id to me: "[...] the servants are not unoccupied, and they will not give your [m]en to you." (4) Now he did not return my men to me, but said this in the presence of the king, my lord. (7) After the king had retreated from Der, at that time, when the [L]uhayati started hostilities with the Iašubeans, they attacked the wall (and) burnt all the fortresses [of] the king. They attacked the men [of the go]vernor of Mazamua. (r 7) When I myself [... the arm]y of the king, my lord, [..., the m]en (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 17 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
[x x x iq]-⸢ba⸣-a ⸢um-ma⸣ / [x (x)] ⸢ARAD-MEŠ⸣ ul re-qu-⸢ma?⸣ / [LÚ].⸢ERIM⸣-MEŠ-ka ul i-nam-di-nu-ni-ka / [en]-na LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ-ía / ⸢ul⸣ ú-tir-ri u a-ga-a / pa-an LUGAL EN-ía iq-ta-bi / ul-tu LUGAL ul-tu URU.de-e-ri / ⸢iḫ⸣-ḫi-su ina UD-me-šú / [LÚ].⸢lu⸣-ḫa-a.a-a-⸢ti⸣ / [it]-⸢ti⸣ ía-a-šu-ba-a.a / [ki]-i ik-ki-ru ⸢É.SIG₄⸣ / [it]-te-bu-ú URU.ḪAL.ṢU-MEŠ / [šá] LUGAL gab-bi il-tar-pi / [a]-na UGU…
Scholarly note
Babylonian-language letter to Sargon II or Sennacherib, edited by Manfried Dietrich (SAA 17, 2003). ORACC text P237983.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237983). 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/P237983/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.
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.