Position in chronology
SAA 15 180. Messengers of Šamaš-taklak and Nabu-taklak (ABL 1057)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the king], my [lord: your servant Aššur-belu]-taqqin. [Good health to] the king, my lord! (4) [The messenger o]f Šamaš-taklak [...] (and) Nabû-taklak [have co]me here (on their way) [to the king], my lord, [with a letter] in their hands. I am [right now] dispatching them to [the king], my [lord]. (11) [News of] Merodach-Bal[adan ......] (Rest destroyed or too broken for translation)
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/P334704/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na LUGAL be-lí]-ía / [ARAD-ka maš-šur—U]—LAL / [lu DI-mu a-na] LUGAL be-lí-ía / [LÚv.A—KIN] ⸢ša⸣ mdUTU—tak-lak / [x x x m]dPA—tak-lak / [e-gír-tú] ina ŠU.2-šú-nu / [ina UGU LUGAL] be-lí-ía / [it-tal]-ku-ni / [an-nu-rig] ina pa-an / [LUGAL be-lí]-ía a-sap-raš-šú-nu / [ṭè-mu ša m]dAMAR.UTU—⸢A—AŠ*⸣ / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ / [x x x x x x]-nu / [x x x x lil]-⸢li*⸣-ku-ni
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Babylonia and the eastern provinces under Sargon II, edited by Andreas Fuchs & Simo Parpola (SAA 15, 2001). ORACC text P334704.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334704). 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/P334704/.
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.