Position in chronology
SAA 05 014. Chaldeans in Bit-Zamani (ABL 1193)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the [king, my lord]: your servant [Nashir-Bel]. Good health [to the king, my lord]! (4) [The land of the king] is well; the fo[rts of the king] are well. The king, [my] lo[rd, can be glad]. (7) When the king, my lord, set out to [the country of ...], the ki[ng, my lord], arrived in [...], and I [wrote to ...] to Bit-Zaman[i ...] concerning the kin[g's] me[n]: (12) "Go and get 100 king's men, and come and b[ring them]; I should do [......]." (15) The 'third man' [......] (Break) (r 1) "Why [...] the horses [...]? (r 3) "Why [......] to the Chaldeans? [They should cultivate] the arable…
Source: Lanfranchi, G.B. & Parpola, S. 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces. SAA 5. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa05/P334783/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na [LUGAL EN-ia] / ARAD-ka [mNIGIN—EN] / lu-u DI-mu [a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / DI-mu a-⸢na⸣ [KUR šá LUGAL] / DI-mu a-na URU.⸢bi⸣-[rat ša LUGAL] / ŠÀ-bu ša LUGAL ⸢EN⸣-[ia lu DÙG] / ki-i LUGAL be-lí ⸢a⸣-[na KUR.x x] / ú-na-miš-u-ni ⸢LUGAL⸣ [be-lí x x x] / iq-ṭí-ri-ib a-na-[ku x x x x] / a-na KUR.É—za-ma-⸢ni⸣ [x x x] / ina UGU LÚv.ERIM—⸢LUGAL⸣-[MEŠ a-sa-ap-ra] / nu-uk 01 me LÚv.ERIM-[MEŠ x x x] /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334783.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334783). source
Translation excerpted from Lanfranchi, G.B. & Parpola, S. 1990. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part II: Letters from the Northern and Northeastern Provinces. SAA 5. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa05/P334783/.
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.