Position in chronology
SAA 01 240. Mountaineers Defy the Governor (ABL 0610)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) ......] men [.... in the] olden times [...] I sent [...] to them. Now, I sent their prefect to them (with this message): "Come! Let me review you, take you down into the mother (town) and give you equipment." They did not obey at all; they didn't come but assaulted their prefect. (10) There is a town called Lapsija at the foot of the mountain; I went there and sent the major-domo to them (with this message): "Come, I want to speak with you." They got up and fled, he did not find anybody there. (16) I said in the king my lord's presence in Nineveh: "They will not…
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/P334422/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x] ⸢LÚv*⸣.ERIM-⸢MEŠ na*-x⸣+[x x x] / [ki-i ša ina] la-bi-ri ú-[x x x] / [ina] ⸢UGU*-ḫi*-šú*⸣-nu a-sa-⸢ap⸣-[ra] / ú-ma-a LÚv.šá-kan-šú-nu ina ⸢UGU⸣-[ḫi-šu-nu] / a-sa-par nu-uk al-ka-a-ni / la-šur-ku-nu ina ŠÀ AMA lu-še-ri-id-ku-nu / GIŠ.til-li la-ad-di-nak-ku-nu / la-áš-šú la iš-me-ú la il-li-ku-ni / a-na LÚv.šak-ni-šú-nu iḫ-ta-as-ʾu / URU.la-ap-si-a i-qab-bu-ni-šú / ina GÌR.2 KUR-ú ina…
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 P334422.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334422). 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/P334422/.
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.