Position in chronology
SAA 05 256. Problems with Sheep (ABL 1288)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant NN. Good heal]th t[o the king, my lord]! (2) [As] to the sheep of [... about which the king, my lord], wrote [me]: "Why do [yo]u withhold the sheep fr[om ...]?" — (5) it is the king, [my] lo[rd], who has wi[thheld] the [sh]eep for his gods! If he does not add to them, (how) can I hold back their shepherds? (9) Nabû-zeru-iddina had an audience with me, saying: "Ša-ili-dubbu has driven away [she]ep; 1,300 ṣu'bu sheep (13) [...] these [......] (Break) (r 1) [...-ya]da' sa[id to them]: "[Co]me and graze!" (r 3) [Let ... give] them or[ders; i]f it pleases…
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/P334831/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[lu-u DI]-mu a-[na LUGAL EN-ia] / [ina] ⸢UGU*⸣ UDU-MEŠ ⸢ša⸣ [x x ša LUGAL] / [be-lí] iš-pur-a-[ni] / [ma-a] ⸢a⸣-ta-a ⸢UDU⸣-MEŠ TAv ⸢ŠÀ⸣ [x x] / ⸢ta⸣-ka-la-⸢ši*⸣ LUGAL be-[lí] / ⸢UDU⸣-MEŠ a-na DINGIR-MEŠ-ni-šu ik-[ta-la] / ⸢šúm⸣-ma ina UGU-ḫi la ú-ra-⸢da⸣ / re-ʾi-šu-nu-u a-kal-la / mdPA—NUMUN—AŠ ina pa-ni-ia / ⸢i⸣-ti-it-zi ma-a mša—DINGIR*—du-bu / ⸢UDU⸣-MEŠ uk-ta-ši-di / [ma]-a 01 lim 03 me…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Assyria's northern frontier under Sargon II, edited by Giovanni B. Lanfranchi & Simo Parpola (SAA 5, 1990). ORACC text P334831.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334831). 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/P334831/.
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