Position in chronology
SAA 05 056. Master Builders and Apprentices (CT 53 033)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Aššur-dur-paniya. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) As to the master builders concerning whom the king, my lord, wrote me: "Give junior ones to the magnates, so they can perform their work assignment with their help" — (8) (out of) my 16 master builders three are with the palace herald, three are working in the centre [of the city], and ten are engaged in bricking my work allocation of the city wall. (This makes) a total of 16 master builders engaged in work. (13) As for their junior sons, [they are] apprenti[ces], incapable of doing any (serious)…
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/P313448/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ARAD-ka maš-šur—BÀD—IGI-ia / lu-ú šul-mu a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia / ina UGU LÚ.TIN-MEŠ ša LUGAL be-lí / iš-pur-an-ni ma-a a-na LÚ.GAL-MEŠ QÀL-MEŠ / di-i-ni ma-a ⸢pil⸣-ku-šú-nu ina ŠÀ-bi / le-pu-uš 16 LÚ.TIN-MEŠ-ni-ia / 03 ina pa-⸢an⸣ LÚ.600—É.GAL / 03 ina MURUB₄ [URU] dul₆-lu e-pu-uš / 10 ša pil-ki [o] ina BÀD / i-ra-ṣip-u-ni ⸢PAB⸣ 16 LÚ.TIN-MEŠ / ša dul₆-lu e-⸢pa⸣-áš-šú-u-ni / ù…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P313448.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313448). 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/P313448/.
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