Position in chronology
SAA 05 221. News from Mannea (ABL 1416)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To [the king, my lord]: your servant [Adad-issiya]. Good he[alth to the king, my lord]! (4) As to what the king, [my] lo[rd, wrote me]: "Why have you [not sent me] an[y news] of the Mannean that you have h[eard]?" — (7) [he has come] to our border, [made] his sacrifices, and returned (home); [the ... have gone] to greet him. (11) The messengers o[f ... have come] from Bar[..., and presented him] the greetings of [...]. (Break) (r 2) [......] where they are [...]. (r 3) As to [NN] about whom the king, [my] lo[rd, wrote me]: "Wh[y does he not ...] to m[y] presen[ce]?" (r 7) He does not…
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/P334894/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na [LUGAL EN-ia] / ARAD-ka m[dIM—KI-ia] / lu-u DI-⸢mu⸣ [a-na LUGAL EN-ia] / ša LUGAL ⸢EN⸣ [iš-pur-an-ni ma-a] / a-ta-a mì-⸢i-nu⸣ [ši-ti-ni] / ša KUR.man-na-a.a ⸢taš⸣-[me? la taš-pu-ra] / ina ta-ḫu-mì-i-ni [it-tal-ka] / UDU.SISKUR-MEŠ-šú* [e-tap-šá] / i-su-ḫu-ru ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / ina UGU-ḫi-šú a-na DI-[me it-tal-ku] / LÚv.A—šip-ri-MEŠ ⸢ša?⸣ [x x x] / TAv URU.MAŠ-⸢da?⸣-[x x x x x] / DI-mu ša [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 P334894.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334894). 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/P334894/.
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.