Position in chronology
SAA 19 103. Writing-Boards Listing the People of Mount Hasuatti (CTN 5 p. 76)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 19(1) To the ki[n]g, my lord: your [se]rvant Nabû-nammir. May Nabû (and) Marduk bless the k[in]g, my lord. (5) The governor of (Bit)-Hamban arrived at the river on the 2nd day. We will set out and go as soon as he has complete[ly] cros[s]ed over the river (Break) (r 3) ... ... (r 4) he takes the w[riting-board] containing the numb[ers] and sends it [to me] in the h[ands] of his messenger. I (and) the [... official] take it to [the k]ing, my lor[d]. (r 9) The silver together with [...] is 15 talents [......]. (r 11) The writing-boards (listing) the f[or]mer (people from) Mount Hasuatti and the later (people from) Mount Hasuatti are at the disposal of the chief judge. The seal of the chief judge is on (them).
State Archives of Assyria, volume 19 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
⸢a⸣-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ be-lí-⸢ia⸣ / ⸢ARAD⸣-ka md⸢PA⸣—ZÁLAG-ir / dPA ⸢dAMAR⸣.UTU ⸢a-na LUGAL⸣ / be-lí-ía ⸢lik-ru⸣-bu / UD 02-KÁM LÚv.EN.NAM / ša KUR.⸢ḫa⸣-ban ina ⸢UGU⸣ / ÍD iq-ṭar-⸢ba⸣ / ki-ma e-tab-⸢ra⸣ / ⸢ug-da-da-me*-er*⸣ / nu-⸢nam⸣-ma-šá [o] / ⸢ni*-il*-lak*⸣ / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / a-⸢ki? x x x⸣ [x x] / GIŠ.[le-ʾu] ša ni-⸢ba⸣-[ni] / i-⸢ṣa-bat-ma⸣ ina ŠU.⸢2⸣ /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393646.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P393646). 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/P393646/.
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
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.