Position in chronology
SAA 15 268. Assyrians and Tabaleans Sold for Money in Sadiru (ABL 0602)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] s[ervants] of the king, my [lo]rd, both Assyrians and Tabaleans who have been sold here for money — (even) those who brought (only) 4 or 5 shekels have been sold — (9) I have brought forth (a total of) 180 'souls,' Assyrian and Tabalean, from the villages and from Sadiru, and am herewith sending them in charge of my messenger to the ki[ng, my lord].
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/P334415/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢LÚv⸣.[ARAD-MEŠ x x] / ša LUGAL [be]-lí-ia / lu-u KUR.aš-šur-a.a / lu-u KUR.ta-bal-a.a / ša an-⸢na*⸣-ka ina kas*-pi* / ta-da-nu-u-ni / ša ina ŠÀ 04 GÍN ta-din / ša ina ⸢ŠÀ⸣ 05* GÍN ta-din / 01 me 80 ZI-MEŠ / KUR.aš-šur-a.a / KUR.ta-bal-a.a / TAv URU.ŠE-MEŠ* / TAv URU.sa-di-ri / ú-se-ṣi-a / ina ŠU.2 LÚv.A—⸢KIN*-ia*⸣ / ina UGU ⸢LUGAL⸣ [be-lí-ia] / ú-se-bi-la
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Babylonia and the eastern provinces under Sargon II, edited by Andreas Fuchs & Simo Parpola (SAA 15, 2001). ORACC text P334415.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P334415). 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/P334415/.
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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.