Position in chronology
SAA 19 119. Wounded in a Campaign (CTN 5 p. 246)
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 19(1) [T]o the king, my lord: yo[ur] se[rvant] Mušezib-ilu. Good health to the king, my lord! (3) The Gambuleans were in Arrapha on the 3rd day. I was wounded in the military campaign and I am very ill. It is not possible for me to co[me] to the king, my lord. (8) At the moment I am laid up in the town Ša-Turmiš on the Za[b] river. The king, my lord, [knows] that I [... whatev]er Šarru-i[qb]i of Ša-Turm[iš] together with the heralds have taken. (13) If I write [...], I [...]. (14) [Perhaps the king], my lord, will say: "Is [it true] that they have sent [...] to [NN]?" The kin[g, my lord],…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 19 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[a]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL be-lí-ía / ⸢ARAD-ka⸣ mmu-še-zib—DINGIR / ⸢lu⸣-u DI-⸢mu⸣ a-na LUGAL be-lí-ía UD 03-⸢KÁM⸣ / LÚv.⸢gan⸣-bu-la-a.a a-na URU.arrap-ḫa / a-na-ku ina KASKAL.2 at-ta-an-ḫa-⸢aṣ⸣ / a—dan-niš mar-ṣa-ku la il-la-⸢ka⸣ / a-du pa-an LUGAL be-lí-ía la ⸢al*-lak*⸣ / an-nu-rag ina ŠÀ-bi URU.ša—⸢tur-miš⸣ [o?] / ina UGU ⸢ÍD⸣.za-⸢ban⸣ kar*-⸢ra*-ku*⸣ / ⸢mLUGAL*—iq*-bi* URU*.lu?⸣—ša—tur-⸢miš*⸣-[a.a] /…
Scholarly note
Royal correspondence from Kalḫu (Nimrud) under Tiglath-pileser III or Sargon II, edited by Mikko Luukko (SAA 19, 2012). ORACC text P393639.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Kalhu (mod. Nimrud) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P393639). 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/P393639/.
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.