Position in chronology
SAA 05 155. Fragment Concerning a Royal Order (ABL 0788)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, m[y] lord: your servant Aššur-alik-pan[i]. Good health to the king, [my] lord! (4) On the 5th day Aššur-bel-[...] came [to my presence] and communicated [us] the or[der] which the king, [my] lo[rd], gav[e] him about [...]: (10) "[......] (Rest destroyed)
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/P334559/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ / ARAD-ka maš-šur—a-lik—pa-⸢ni⸣ / lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL ⸢EN⸣-[ia] / ina UD 05-KÁM m⸢aš-šur*—EN*-x⸣+[x ina IGI-ia] / it-tal-ka ⸢ṭè-e⸣-[mu] / ša LUGAL be*-[lí] / iš-ku-nu-šú*-[u-ni] / iq-ṭí*-ba-⸢an⸣-[na-ši] / ina ⸢UGU⸣ [x x]+⸢x⸣ a [x x x] / ma-[a x x x x x x x] / ⸢x x x x⸣ [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 P334559.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334559). 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/P334559/.
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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.