SAA 19 108. Raising Barley from Babylonian Cities (CTN 5 p. 34)

~730 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P393650

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 19

High confidence

(1) To the king, my lord: your servant Ašipâ. Good health to (the king,) my lord! (4) Concerning the barley which the king, my lord, sent me for, when I set out from the king, my lord, I entered [Cut]ha and Sippar and I stayed two days in Babylon but the barley of Ṣil-Bel was not available. I could not go near it until Mušezib-Ilu came from Kar-Aššur. (r 7) I towed the boats and went a day’s march below Cutha. (r 10) On the 23rd I will set out and put in place the barley of Cutha.

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

Transliteration

a-na LUGAL be-lí-ía / ARAD-ka ma-ši-pa-a / lu-ú DI-mu a-⸢na⸣ <LUGAL> be-lí-ía / ina UGU ŠE.PAD-MEŠ ⸢ša⸣ LUGAL / be-lí iš-pur-an-ni-ni / TAv pa-an LUGAL be-lí-ía / ša ⸢ú-nam⸣-mi-ša-an-ni / ⸢a⸣-na ⸢URU⸣.[ku]-⸢ti⸣-u / ⸢a⸣-na ⸢URU.si-par⸣ / e-ta-⸢ár⸣-ba / 02-ta UD-MEŠ ina TIN.TIR.KI / ka-mu-⸢sa⸣-ak [o] / ŠE.PAD-MEŠ ša mGIŠ.MI—d⸢EN⸣ / la qu-⸢ur⸣-ba-ti / la aq-⸢ri-ib⸣ / a-⸢du m⸣mu-še-zib—DINGIR / ⸢TAv…

Scholarly note

Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393650.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P393650). 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/P393650/.

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.