Position in chronology
SAA 19 080. Mukin-zeri and his Son Šumu-ukin Have Been Killed (CTN 5 p. 45)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) To the king, m[y] lord: your servant Aššur-šallimann[i]. Good health to the kin[g, my lord]! (4) We got together on the 26th, stood in the presence of the commander-in-chief and gave orders to one another. We arrived within the (city) gates and inflicted a defeat: Mukin-zeri has been killed and Šumu-ukin, his son, has also been killed. The city is conquered. The king, my lord, can be glad. (13) The king, my lord, should wait for our messenger, until our messenger comes. Only thereupon should the king, [my] lo[rd], come. (r 1) Perhaps the king, [my] lord, will say: "Did they kill (people)…
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/P393635/
Why it matters
Transliteration
a-na LUGAL be-lí-⸢ia⸣ / ARAD-ka maš-šur—DI-⸢ni⸣ / lu-u DI-mu a-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [EN-ia] / UD 26-KÁM ni-ip-tu-⸢ḫur⸣ / ina <IGI> LÚv.tur-ta-ni ni-te-⸢te-zi⸣ / ṭè-e-mu ⸢a⸣-ḫa-a-a-iš ni-sa-kan / ina ŠÀ-bi KÁ.GAL-MEŠ / ni-iq-ṭi-⸢ri⸣-ib de-ek-tú / ni-du-ak mGIN—NUMUN / de-e-ke mMU—GIN DUMU-šú / de-e-ke URU ka-⸢áš⸣-du šu-⸢ú⸣ / ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí lu ḫa-di / LUGAL be-lí pa-an / LÚv.A—KIN-ni lid-gúl! / a-⸢du⸣ bé-et…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393635.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393635). 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/P393635/.
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.