Position in chronology
SAA 15 018. Captives in Arrapha (CT 53 217)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [These] c[ap]tives in Arrapha [...] are 4,100 in number. I asked [NN] and L[ansî] (who said): "[There are] 1,000 k[ing's] men among them." Their watch is v[ery] strict. (10) And right now the chief eu[nuch] will go [wi]th them to Urz[uhina]. He is reviewing [them]. Befo[re they go], Lan[sî ...] in the pres[ence of ...] (Rest destroyed)
Source: Fuchs, A. & Parpola, S. 2001. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part III: Letters from Babylonia and the Eastern Provinces. SAA 15. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa15/P313632/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢LÚv⸣.[ḫu]-⸢ub⸣-tú [an-ni-u] / ina URU.arrap-ḫa [x x x] / 04 lim 01 me šú-nu [a-na mx x x] / ù a-na m⸢la⸣-[an-si-i] / a-sa-al ma-[a x x x] / 01 lim LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ—⸢LUGAL⸣ / i-na ŠÀ-bi [šu-nu] / EN.NUN-šú-nu a—[dan-niš] / dan-na-⸢at⸣ / ù an-nu-⸢rig⸣ / ⸢LÚv⸣.GAL—⸢SAG⸣ / [is]-se-e-šú-⸢nu⸣ / a-na URU.ur-⸢zu⸣-[ḫi-na] / il-la-[ka] / e-šar-[šú-nu] / i—pa-⸢na⸣-[tú-šú-nu] / mla-an-[si-i x x] / ina pa-⸢an⸣ [x x x x]
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Babylonia and the eastern provinces under Sargon II, edited by Andreas Fuchs & Simo Parpola (SAA 15, 2001). ORACC text P313632.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313632). source
Translation excerpted from Fuchs, A. & Parpola, S. 2001. The Correspondence of Sargon II, Part III: Letters from Babylonia and the Eastern Provinces. SAA 15. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa15/P313632/.
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.