Position in chronology
SAA 01 098. Cutting Timber with the Chief Eunuch (ABL 0484)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, our lord: your servants Ṭab-ṣill-Ešarra and Na'di- ilu. Good health to the king, our lord! (5) As to what the king, our lord, wrote to us: "While you were here, I gave you this order: 'You will first go to Lurisite and choose strong and good-looking timber; later you will take woodcutters down to do the cutting within (the said area)'" — (13) the king did give us (this) order, but as we [ca]me to the city of Aššur, the Chief Eunuch [with x] men [...... (Break) (r 1) "......] to return [to] Samarra; should the men stay inactive for eight days?" (r 5) We took the men downstream, and they are now cutting (the timber). We shall cut within the area which the king set to us, and (then) go; we shall leave the best stems [in] the grove (when) we go.
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/P334332/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ni / ARAD-MEŠ-ka mIM*—ṣil—É.ŠÁR.RA / mI—DINGIR / lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ni / ša LUGAL EN-ni iš-pur-an-na-ši-ni / ma-a ki-i an-na-ka at-ta-nu-ni / ma-a ṭè-e-mu a-sa-kan-ku-nu / ma-a taḫ-ru-ba a-na URU.lu-ri-si-te / tal-la-ka ma-a GIŠ.ÙR-MEŠ / KALAG.GA-MEŠ SIG₅-MEŠ ta-⸢mar⸣ / ma-a ḫa-ra-ma-ma LÚv.na-ki-su-te / tú-⸢še⸣-ra-da ina ŠÀ-bi i-na-ki-su / LUGAL EN-ni ṭè-e-mu i-sa-kan-na-ši /…
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 P334332.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334332). 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/P334332/.
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