Position in chronology
SAA 05 078. Imposing the King’s Treaty (ABL 0246)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Aššur-belu-da''in. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) The Ušhaeans and Qudaeans about whom the king, my lord, wrote me, have submitted to the king my lord's command; (these) towns which were not submissive in the days of Šamaš-ila'i, the royal bodyguard has now assembl[ed] and brought over to me. (16) I have made peace with them. Those obliged to provide labour have provided it, and those obliged to provide king's men have provided them. (r 4) The whole mountain (area) has observed the king's tr[eaty]; the king, my lord, ca[n be glad]. (r 7) Shall I…
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/P334181/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-ia / ARAD-ka maš-šur—EN—KALAG-in / lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ía / URU LÚv.uš-ḫa-a.a / URU LÚv.qu-da-a.a / ša LUGAL EN-lí ina UGU-ḫi-šú-nu / iš-pur-an-ni / ina UGU pe-e ša LUGAL EN-ía / iḫ-ta-an-šú / URU-MEŠ-ni ša UD-MEŠ / ša mdUTU—DINGIR-a.a / la ḫa-an-šu-ni / ú-ma-a an-nu-rig / LÚv.qur-bu-te up-ta-ḫi-⸢ir⸣ / ina UGU-ḫi-ia na-ṣa! / ú-sa-li-im-šú-nu / ša il-ka-šú-ni / il-ku-šu…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334181.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334181). 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/P334181/.
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.