Position in chronology
SAA 19 033. Horses, Oxen and Sheep from Tabal (CTN 5 p. 290)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the k]ing, my lord: yo[ur servant] Inurta-belu-uṣur. Good health to the king, my lord! (4) As to Inurta-aplu-iddina about whom my lord wrote to me: "How many horses, oxen (and) sheep that he brought from Tabal has he entrusted to you? Why have you not written (about this)?" (10) I have already written to my lord twice: 46 horses, 165 oxen, 4,635 sheep are in my charge (and) 33 horses, 135 oxen are in the charge of Aššur-naṣir. (16) I have given him orders, written a sealed document and given it to him, and he has left for my lord. (19) Aya-neri has fetched 16 logs that came from…
Source: Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa19/P393615/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-ia / [ARAD]-⸢ka⸣ mdMAŠ—EN—PAB / [lu] DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ia / TAv UGU mdMAŠ—A—AŠ / ša be-lí iš-pur-a-ni / ma-a ⸢ANŠE⸣.KUR.RA-MEŠ GUD.NÍTA-MEŠ / UDU-ḪI.A-MEŠ ša TAv KUR.ta-ba-li / na-ṣa-ni ma-a ki ma-ṣi* ina IGI-ka / ip-qid-di ma a-ta-a la taš-pur / 02-šú ma-ṣi ina UGU EN-ia / a-sa-pa-ra 46 ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ / 01 me 65 GUD-MEŠ 04 lim 06 me 35 / UDU-ḪI.A-MEŠ ⸢ina pa-ni⸣-ia / 33…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393615.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393615). source
Translation excerpted from Luukko, M. 2012. The Correspondence of Tiglath-pileser III and Sargon II from Calah/Nimrud. SAA 19. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa19/P393615/.
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.