SAA 19 118. Fragment Mentioning Balassu (CTN 5 p. 38)

~730 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P415762

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 19

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (13) [... ...] fort (14) [...] let the troops [...] (Break) (17) [...] did [n]ot obey [becau]se of [......] (18) [...]. Per[haps the ki]ng, my lord, will s[ay: “...] in [...] (20) [......]. As to [what the kin]g, [my] lo[rd, wrote to] me: “[......] (Break) (25) [... w]e will releas[e ...] (26) [...] kill [......] (Break) (r 6) [... the king], my lord, knows that [...] (r 7) [... s]ailed downstream. [Let ...] quickly [...] (r 8) staying [at yo]ur [disposal] ...[...] (r 9) [...] in the canal which [...] o[n ...] (r 10) [...] the terrain [...] the previous people (r 11)…

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

Transliteration

[x x x x x x] ⸢x x x x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x] ⸢x x x x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x] ⸢x x x x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x] ⸢x x x x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x] / [x x x x x x] ina ⸢UGU⸣ [x x] / [x x x x x] ⸢ni ib⸣ [x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x x x x x⸣+[x x] / [x x x x] si? ⸢x⸣ [x x x] / [x x x x]+⸢x x x x⸣+[x x x] / [x x x] ⸢x x⸣…

Scholarly note

Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P415762.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P415762). 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/P415762/.

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.