Position in chronology
SAA 01 232. News and Complaints (CT 53 864)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [A letter from Nabû-damm]iq to [...]ti-Bel. [Good he]alth to my lord! (4) [Ta]bni-ilu has come here; he has been summoned for Nabû-šezib and should speak in the presence of the crown prince. (7) Bring me barley and sesame! Why do you take away the barley? To whom do you distribute it? I alone am being excluded from it! ...... (r 1) [......] in the presence of the crown prince [...... (Rest destroyed)
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/P314273/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na mx-x]+⸢x⸣-ti—EN / [IM mdPA-SIG₅]-⸢iq⸣ / [lu DI]-mu a-na EN-a / [m]⸢tab?⸣-ni—DINGIR ḫa-na-ka / i-tal-ka a-⸢na⸣ mdPA—še-zib / da-ki ina IGI DUMU—LUGAL liq-qi-bi / ŠE.⸢PAD*⸣-MEŠ ŠE*.GIŠ.Ì bi-la-nu / a*-ke* ŠE.PAD-MEŠ / ta-na*-ši* ma*-nu ta-da-⸢šu-nu*⸣ / ana-ku ú-da*-ia / a-ka-li-šú / NUMUN?-šú ⸢ir?⸣-tú-mu? / [ina] ⸢IGI*⸣ DUMU—⸢MAN*⸣ / [x] ⸢x⸣ [x] ⸢x⸣ [x] / [x x] ⸢x⸣ [x x] / ú*-[x x] ⸢x x⸣ / [x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x] / [x] ⸢x⸣+[x 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 P314273.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P314273). 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/P314273/.
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.