Position in chronology
SAA 05 166. Revolt in Urarṭu (ABL 1325)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] has captured [...] in the moat of the town Š[u...], and is bringing cap[tives] from various places into it. (r 1) Furthermore, the city Kar-siparri has revolted against him, and his commander-in-chief is engaged in [bat]tle [the]re. (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/P334848/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x]+⸢x⸣+[x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x] / i—ḫa-ri URU.⸢šu⸣-<[x x]> / i-ṣa-ba-ta LÚv*.ḫu-[ub-tú*] / ša TAv na-ka / TAv na-ka / ina ŠÀ-bi ú-še-ra-ba / ù URU.kar-URUDU-MEŠ / i-si-šú i-ti-ki-ri / LÚ.tur-ta-nu-šu / ina ⸢ŠÀ⸣-[bi qa]-⸢ra⸣-bu ú-pa-ša / [x x x x x] a?
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334848.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334848). 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/P334848/.
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.