ABL 0804 (P237824)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 0804 |
|---|---|
| ID | P237824 |
| Museum no. | BM — |
| Collection | British Museum, London, UK |
| Language | Akkadian |
| Period | Neo-Assyrian · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE |
| Genre | Letter |
| Find spot | Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) |
| Coordinates | 36.3582, 43.1621 |
English translation
By ORACC project saao/saa18 · Via Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC)
| Line | English |
|---|---|
| Obverse [0:3] o 1o 1–o 33 | To the king of the lands, my lord: your servant, Marduk. May Nabû and [M]arduk bless the king of the lands, my lord. |
| Obverse [3:14] o 44–o 1414 | Thanks to Bel and Nabû, who gave dominance to the king of the lands, my lord, your servants, whom you took in your hands, are achievers and not d[o-nothin]gs. In three months they have done a j[o]b which would not be done in [thr]ee years, and delivered it to the king, my lord. |
| Obverse [14:31] o 1515– | But perhaps the king, my lord, will [say]: "He wrote earlier on that the jo[b] will not be don[e]. I sai[d] in order to further the object[ive] of the king, my lord: "[If] you seized [...], the king may achie[ve his] objective." Now yo[ur] gods have acted, and [the king] has ac[hieved] his objective. Moreover, the me[n] who s[aid], "Sipp[ar] is a door [locked] in front of us," have been led into the hands of the king of the lands, [my] lo[rd]. |
| Reverse [7:24] r 88– | I have heard the magnates say as follows: "We will set up a camp in Dilbat." If they set up a ca[m]p in Dilbat, the people will starve. Also, no caravan will come to them. Rather, their army will go out and plunder a caravan. Let them place the camp within the enclosure of the camp of Babylon of last year, and let boats and water-skins come to them. |
| Edge [0:2] e. 1e. 1–e. 22 | There should be 520 (of them) in Cutha. The h[o]rses of the king of the lands should be in hiding and thwart their exit from Babylon. |
Transliteration (ATF)
From Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC default); per-file JSON license fields say: This data is released under the CC0 license (133618)
| Line | ATF | Machine English (draft) |
|---|---|---|
| o | ||
| 1 | a-na LUGAL KUR.KUR EN-ia₂ | |
| 2 | ARAD-ka {1}mar-duk {d}PA u {d}⸢AMAR⸣.UTU | |
| 3 | a-na LUGAL KUR.KUR EN-ia₂ lik-ru-⸢bu⸣ | |
| 4 | it-ti {d}EN u {d}PA ša₂ kiš-⸢šu⸣-tu₂ | |
| 5 | a-na LUGAL KUR.KUR EN-ia₂ id-din-nu-uʾ | |
| 6 | {lu₂}ARAD-MEŠ-ka ⸢ša₂⸣ ina ŠU.2-ka | |
| 7 | taṣ-ba-⸢ta⸣ e-piš-e-⸢MEŠ⸣ | |
| 8 | u₃ la ⸢x⸣+[x x]+⸢x⸣-MEŠ šu₂-nu | |
| 9 | ⸢dul⸣-lu ša₂ ina 03 MU-MEŠ | |
| 10 | ⸢la in⸣-ne₂-ep-⸢pu⸣-uš | |
| 11 | ina 03 ITI-MEŠ ki-i i-pu-šu₂ | |
| 12 | a-na LUGAL ⸢EN-ia₂ it⸣-tan-⸢nu⸣ | |
| 13 | u min₃-de-e-<ma> ⸢LUGAL⸣ EN-⸢a⸣ i-[qab-bi] | |
| 14 | um-ma ina mah-ri-⸢i⸣ | |
| 15 | il-ta-par um-ma ⸢dul⸣-[lu] | |
| 16 | ul in-ne₂-ep-pu-⸢uš⸣ | |
| 17 | a-na na-ši ṣi-bu-[tu₂] | |
| 18 | ⸢ša₂⸣ LUGAL EN-ia₂ um-⸢ma⸣ [ki-i] | |
| 19 | ⸢taṣ⸣-bat du-⸢x⸣+[x x] | |
| b.e. | ||
| 20 | LUGAL ṣi-bu-ut-⸢su⸣ | |
| 21 | lik-šu-[ud] | |
| 22 | en-na DINGIR-MEŠ-⸢ka⸣ | |
| r | ||
| 1 | ki-i i-pu-šu₂ [x x] | |
| 2 | ṣi-bu-us-su ⸢ik⸣-[tal-da] | |
| 3 | u ⸢ERIM⸣-MEŠ ša₂ ⸢iq⸣-[bu-u₂] | |
| 4 | um-ma UD.KIB.⸢NUN⸣{[ki]} | |
| 5 | {giš}IG ša₂ pa-ni-ni [x x x] | |
| 6 | a-na ŠU.2 LUGAL KUR.KUR ⸢EN⸣-[ia₂] | |
| 7 | i-⸢tab-ku⸣-niš-šu₂-nu-⸢tu₂⸣ | |
| 8 | ina pi-i ⸢ša₂⸣ {lu₂}GAL-MEŠ | |
| 9 | al-te-me um-ma ma-dak-tu₂ | |
| 10 | ina {uru}dal-bat ni-šak-kan | |
| 11 | ⸢ki⸣-i ma-⸢dak⸣-ta ina {uru}dal-bat | |
| 12 | il-ta-kan-uʾ UN-MEŠ | |
| 13 | i-be₂-ru-u₂ u a-lak-ti | |
| 14 | a-na pa-ni-šu₂-nu ul tal-lak | |
| 15 | u {lu₂}hi-a-lu-šu₂-nu uṣ-ṣa-am-ma | |
| 16 | a-lak-ta i-hab-bat | |
| 17 | ina BAD₃ ma-dak-ta ša₂ TIN.TIR{ki} | |
| 18 | ⸢ša₂⸣ šad-da-qad₃ ma-dak-ta | |
| r.e. | ||
| 19 | liš-kun-nu {giš}MA₂-MEŠ | |
| 20 | {kuš}ma-aš₂-ki-ri-MEŠ | |
| 21 | a-na pa-ni-šu₂-nu | |
| 22 | lil-lik-ku-nu | |
| e. | ||
| 1 | 05-me 20 lu-u₂ ina GU₂.DU₈.A{ki} {⸢anše⸣}KUR.RA-MEŠ | |
| 2 | ša₂ LUGAL KUR.KUR lu-u₂ ina pa-ši-ri u a-ṣi-ti-su-nu | |
| 3 | ul-tu TIN.TIR{ki} lu-hal-liq-qu | |
Sources & licences
- Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative · CDLI: reuse of catalogue/transliteration data with citation of CDLI; images restricted (not fetched) · Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), https://cdli.earth/ ; cite CDLI and the P-number
- Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC default); per-file JSON license fields say: This data is released under the CC0 license (133618) · ORACC project editions, https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ ; cite the individual project (see texts.extra_json.project)
Cite the original edition and translator. Page generated by Unread Atlas from the public corpus export of 2026-10-11.