Position in chronology
SAA 19 111. Boats and Water-Skin Rafts are Well Despite an Attack (CTN 5 p. 31)
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [T]o the king, my lord: your se[rvant] Ašipâ. Good health to the king, [m]y lord! (4) I brought the boats to Sur[u]. The prefect of the boatmen who [...] (Break) (r 2) [Bor]sippan [troops c]ame out and attacked the men of Balassu; seven men were wo[un]ded and five were killed. Also one chariot fighter of [mi]ne was killed with them. But the boats and water-skin rafts are well.
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/P224390/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-⸢na LUGAL⸣ EN-ia / ⸢ARAD⸣-ka ma-⸢ši⸣-pa-a / ⸢lu⸣-u DI-mu a-na MAN EN-⸢ía⸣ / GIŠ.MÁ-MEŠ ina URU.su-⸢ru⸣ / uq-ṭa-ri-ba [o] / ⸢LÚv.GAR? LÚv.MÁ⸣.DU.⸢DU⸣ / ⸢ša⸣ [x x x]+⸢x⸣ / ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x] / [x x x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x] / [ERIM-MEŠ URU.bar]-sip-a.a / [i]-⸢tu⸣-ṣu-ni / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣ LÚv.ERIM-MEŠ / ⸢ša⸣ mba-la-si / i-zu-uq-pu / 07 ERIM-MEŠ ⸢ma-ḫu⸣-ṣu / 05 ERIM-MEŠ de-⸢e⸣-ku / 01 LÚv.A—SIG-⸢ia⸣ / KI-šú-nu-ma / de-e-ke / ⸢DI⸣-mu a-na GIŠ.MÁ-MEŠ / [a]-⸢na⸣ KUŠ.maš-kir
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P224390.
Attribution
Image: BM — = IM 064011 (National Museum of Iraq, Baghdad, Iraq (on loan, British Museum, London, UK ?)) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P224390). 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/P224390/.
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.