Position in chronology
SAA 19 043. Archers, Şimirra, and Work to be Finished (CTN 5 p. 145)
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [......] ... the [k]ing (Break) (11) [......] whom the ki[ng|] (12) [... ...]... the people (r 1) [... ...]... have taken (r 2) [Concerning the a]rchers [about whom the king, my lord], wrote me, [saying] (r 4) [......] eunuch (r 5) [......] has [...]ed his archer(s) (r 6) [le]t him attack [... ...] the archers (r 7) [... On the x]th day two of them (r 8) [......] 40 [......] (r 9) [......] together (r 10) [O]n the 20th [o]f Nisan (I), [Mušal]lim-Aššur retur[ned] from [Ṣ]imirra, [saying]: “Go, quickly [rem]ove the corpses [...] and res[ume] th[eir] work, so it can be fin[ished] before the king (comes)." (r 15) [One] boat of Ṣi[mirr]a [...] (r 16) [... i]n [Ṣ]imirra [......] (r 17) [...] the [arche]r[s ...] (Rest destroyed)
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/P393620/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x] ⸢ša?⸣ m⸢x⸣ x+[x] / [x x x x x x] ma*-⸢a* LUGAL⸣ / [x x x x x x] i? [x x]+⸢x x x⸣ / [x x x x x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x x x]+x / [x x x] ⸢x⸣ u ⸢x x⸣-ṣu?-u-ni / [x x x] ⸢x x⸣ lu? ⸢x⸣ ḫu / [x x x] ⸢x⸣ šú-nu ⸢x x x⸣ / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x x] ⸢x x⸣ / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x x x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x x x x] / [x x] i ⸢x⸣+[x x]+⸢x⸣ ša ⸢LUGAL?⸣ / [x x x x x]-⸢u⸣-ni ⸢UN⸣-MEŠ / [x x x x x]-⸢ú⸣-tú…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393620.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393620). 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/P393620/.
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.