Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 01 150. Finding Big Bull Colossi for the King (CT 53 024)

~715 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P313439

Translation · reference

High confidence
(1) To the king, [my lord]: your servant Aššur-šumi-ke'in. Good health to the king, my lord! May Aššur bless the king, my lord! (5) As to what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "Find big twelve-cubit bull colossi!" — (8) [There are two] in front of the main gate of the center of the city; [one] is an [el]even-cubit colossus [of the Chief C]upbearer; the other has a [...] and is not 'clean'. (12) Then there are [two] bull colossi of Zeru-ibni, each ten cubits; one he has set up in front of the royal palace, the other one is extra and in his possession. Let him give it [to] the Palace Herald so…

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/P313439/

Why it matters

Transliteration

a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / ARAD-ka maš-šur—⸢MU*—GIN⸣ / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ / ⸢d⸣aš-šur a-na LUGAL EN-ia lik-ru-⸢ub⸣ / ša LUGAL EN iš-pur-a-ni / ⸢ma⸣-a NA₄.ALAD.dLAMA KALAG-MEŠ / ⸢ša⸣ 12 ina 01 KÙŠ a-mu-ur / [02] ina IGI KÁ.GAL da-at-ti ša MURUB₄—URU / [01-en] NA₄.ALAD.d⸢LAMA⸣ [ša] ⸢11⸣ ina 01 KÙŠ / [ša LÚ.GAL]—⸢KAŠ⸣.LUL 01-en É [x x] / [x x]+⸢x⸣ ina ŠÀ-bi-šú la za-ku / [02…

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 P313439.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313439). 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/P313439/.

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