SAA 19 086. Military Camp in Maruru (CTN 5 p. 43)

~730 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P393638

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 19

High confidence

(1) [To the king, my lord: your servant] Aššur-šallimanni. [Good health to the king, m]y [lord!] The [king's] cam[p] is well. (3) [As to the Aramean]s about whom the king, my lord, gave us orders: "[Get going and] march off!" – we have turned back from Maruru and [directed] our course [...] towards the Arameans. (6) Opposite Nippur they brought us [the kin]g’s [sealed order], saying: "[...] is coming to them. [...] get assembled and go! Exact the dried corn [from the houses of Bi]t-Amukani!" (9) We turned back and are staying [in Marur]u. The cavalrymen [whom] we transferred [to] Maruru (and)…

State Archives of Assyria, volume 19 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[a-na LUGAL be-lí-ia ARAD-ka] maš-šur—DI-an-ni [o] / [lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL be-lí]-⸢ia⸣ DI-mu a-na ma-⸢dak-te⸣ [ša LUGAL] / [ina UGU LÚv.ar-ma-a]-⸢a⸣ ša LUGAL be-lí ṭè*-mu* iš*-ku-na-⸢ši-ni⸣ / [ma-a na-am-me-šá] ⸢li⸣-kal-ka TAv URU.ma-ru-ri ni-su-uḫ-⸢ra⸣ / [x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ a-na ŠÀ LÚv.a-ri-mi pa-ni-ni / [ni-sa-kan un-qi] ⸢LUGAL*⸣ ina pu-ut EN.LÍL.KI ina UGU-ni na-ṣu-ni / [ma-a x x x]+⸢x⸣ ina…

Scholarly note

Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393638.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P393638). 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/P393638/.

Related tablets

Related sources

~3200 BCE

Proto-Cuneiform Account Tablet

One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.

~2050 BCE

Drehem Cattle-Distribution Tablet

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.

~1340 BCE

Amarna Letter EA 153 — Abi-milku of Tyre

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.