Position in chronology
SAA 01 065. Digging a Ditch (ABL 0102)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To] the king, my lord: [your servant Ṭab]-šar-Aššur. [Good health] to the king, my lord! (4) Paqaha, the master-builder in charge of the ditch came and had an audience with me, saying: "The king has added to the men working on the ditch but there are no (work) leaders. The governor of Talmusa is not able to direct the men, he said to me as follows: (14) '1,000 men [...... (Break) (r 2) ...... we [can]not do the work.'" (r 3) Paqaha told me: "I (must) personally take the lead of 100 men and spend a full month on the work. Let the king my lord call the leaders to account for the fact that I (must) spend a full month on the work employing (only) 100 men."
Source: Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334051/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ia / [ARAD-ka mDÙG]—IM—aš-šur / [lu] ⸢DI*⸣-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / [m]⸢pa⸣-qa-ḫa LÚv.TIN / ša pa-an ḫi-ri-te / it-tal-ka ina pa-ni-ia / i-ti-ti-zi ma-a LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ / ina UGU ḫi-ri-te LUGAL ur-ta-di / ma-a LÚv.ra-di-a-ni la-áš-šú / ma-a LÚv.EN.NAM ša URU.tal-mu-sa / ⸢la⸣ e-mu-qa-šú LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ / [la-a] i-ra-di / [ki-i an]-⸢ni⸣-e iq-ṭí-bi-a / [ma-a x x]+⸢x 01*⸣ lim LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence under Sargon II, edited by Simo Parpola (SAA 1, 1987). Letter from a governor or high official to the king of Assyria. ORACC text P334051.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334051). source
Translation excerpted from Parpola, S. 1987. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West. SAA 1. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa01/P334051/.
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