Position in chronology
SAA 01 071. The Ziggurat of Anu in Assur (ABL 0106)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Ṭab-šar-Aššur. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) [As to] the work on the ziggurat of Anu concerning which the king, my lord, gave me the following [order]: "Ask the Chief Scribe about it!" — (8) They have [now] asked him, and [he spoke] as follows: "Why should we do [......] the work [......" (Break) (r 4) ......] will go straight away and inspect the work in the Inner City; returning from the Inner City to Calah, he will go to the Chief Scribe, who will send a detailed report to the Palace.
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/P334055/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-⸢na*⸣ LUGAL be-[lí-ia] / [ARAD*]-ka mDÙG—IM—aš-[šur] / [lu DI]-mu a-na LUGAL [EN]-⸢ia⸣ / [ina UGU] ⸢du₆⸣-lu ša si-qur-ri-te / [ša da]-num ša LUGAL be-lí / [ṭè-e-mu] iš-ku-na-ni-ni / [ma a-na LÚv].GAL—A.BA šá-ʾa-al / [an-nu-rig is]-⸢sa⸣-aʾ-lu-šú ki-i an-ni-i / [iq-ṭí-bi ma-a] a-ta-a a-⸢ni⸣-nu* / [x x x x x] né-pa-áš ⸢ma*⸣-[a du₆]-lu / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ia / [x x x x x x URU].⸢kal⸣-ḫa / [x…
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 P334055.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334055). 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/P334055/.
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.