ABL 0037 (P333989)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 0037 |
|---|---|
| ID | P333989 |
| 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/saa10 · Via Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC)
| Line | English |
|---|---|
| Obverse [0:5] o 1o 1–o 55 | To the king, my lord: your servant Issar-šumu-ereš. Good health to the king, my lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, my lord! |
| Obverse [5:12] o 66–o 1212 | As to what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "One of your colleagues wrote to me: the planet Mercury will be visible in the month Nisan (I). What do you take the present month to be?" — we take the present month to be Adar (XII) and we take this day to be the 25th. |
| Obverse [13:18] o 1414– | [The person who] wrote this [... to the king, my lord, ...] |
| Reverse [2:7] r 33–r 77 | "An incompetent one can frustrate [a j]udge, an uneducated one can make the mighty worry" — this is what is said. |
| Reverse [7:12] r 88–r 1212 | Concerning the planet Venus about which the king, my lord, wrote to me: "When will you tell me (what) 'Venus is stable in the morning' (means)?" — |
| Reverse [12:20] r 1313– | it is [writte]n as follows in the commentary: "Venus [is stable] in the morning: (the word) 'morning' (here) means [to be bright], it is shinin[g brightly], (and the expression) '[its] posi[tion is stable]' means it [is lighted] in the west." |
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 EN-[ia] | |
| 2 | ARAD-ka {1}15—MU—KAM-eš | |
| 3 | lu DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-⸢ia⸣ | |
| 4 | {d}PA u {d}AMAR.UTU | |
| 5 | a-na LUGAL EN-ia₂ lik-ru-bu | |
| 6 | ša LUGAL be-li iš-pur-an-ni | |
| 7 | ma-a 01-en ina {lu₂}ki-na-ta-ti-ku-nu | |
| 8 | is-sap-ra ma-a {d}UDU.IDIM | |
| 9 | ina {iti}BARAG IGI.LAL | |
| 10 | ma-a ITI an-ni-u mi₃-i-nu tu-kal-la | |
| 11 | ITI an-ni-u {iti}ŠE nu-ka-la | |
| 12 | UD-mu an-ni-u UD 25-KAM₂ nu-ka-la | |
| 13 | [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ra-ni ka ⸢x⸣ hu | |
| 14 | [x x x x x x] an-ni-tu₂ | |
| 15 | [a-na LUGAL EN-ia] ⸢iš⸣-pur-an-ni | |
| 16 | [x x x x x x x LUGAL] ⸢EN⸣-ia | |
| 17 | [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ šu₂ | |
| r | ||
| 1 | [x x x x x x x x x] | |
| 2 | [x x x x]-⸢bu⸣-šu₂-⸢ni⸣ | |
| 3 | [ma-a la] mu-de-e šip-ri | |
| 4 | [da]-⸢a.a⸣-nu u₂-ša₂-an-na-ah | |
| 5 | la mu-de-e a-ma-ti | |
| 6 | u₂-ša₂-an-za-qa dan-nu | |
| 7 | an-ni-u šu-u ša₂ qa-bu-u-ni | |
| 8 | ina UGU {d}dil-bat | |
| 9 | ša LUGAL be-li iš-pur-an-ni | |
| 10 | ma-a {d}dil-bat | |
| 11 | ina še-re-e-ti i-kun | |
| 12 | a-na ma-a-ti ta-qab-bi-ia | |
| 13 | ki-i an-ni-i | |
| 14 | ina mu-kal-lim-⸢ti⸣ [ša₃]-⸢ṭir⸣ | |
| 15 | ma-a {d}dil-⸢bat⸣ | |
| 16 | ina še-re-ti [i-kun] | |
| 17 | ma-a še-⸢e⸣-[ru na-ma-ru] | |
| 18 | ša₂-ru-⸢ru⸣ [na-ši-ma] | |
| 19 | KI.[GUB-sa₃ GI.NA] | |
| r.e. | ||
| 20 | ina ⸢UD-mu⸣ [x x x] | |
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.