ABL 0078 (P334027)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 0078 |
|---|---|
| ID | P334027 |
| 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 [0:6] o 1o 1–o 66 | To the king, our lord: your servants Balasî and Nabû-ahhe-eriba. Good health to the king, our lord! May Nabû and Marduk bless the king, our lord! |
| Obverse [6:15] o 77–o 1515 | The king, our lord, will pardon us. Is one day not enough for the king to mope and to eat nothing? For how long (still)? This is already the third day (when) the king does not eat anything. The king, a beggar! |
| Obverse [15:22] o 1616– | (Surely) when, in the beginning of the month, the moon appears, he says: "I will not fast (any more)! It is the beginning of the month! I want bread to eat and wine to drink!" |
| Reverse [3:10] r 44–r 1010 | Now Jupiter is the moon. The king can ask for food for even the whole of the year! We became worried and were afraid, and that is why we are (now) writing to the king. |
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-ni | |
| 2 | ARAD-MEŠ-ni-ka | |
| 3 | {1}ba-la-si-i | |
| 4 | {1}{d}PA—PAB-MEŠ—SU | |
| 5 | lu-u DI-mu a-na LUGAL EN-ni | |
| 6 | {d}PA {d}AMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL | |
| 7 | lik-ru-bu LUGAL EN-ni | |
| 8 | re-ma-nu šu-u₂ | |
| 9 | 01-en UD-mu e-ṣe-e | |
| 10 | ša LUGAL ik-ku-šu u₂-kar-ru-ni | |
| 11 | ku-sa-pu la e-kul-u-ni | |
| 12 | a-di im—ma-te im—ma-te ša₂-al-šu₂ | |
| 13 | ina UD-me an-ni-i-e | |
| 14 | LUGAL NINDA-MEŠ la ek-kal | |
| 15 | LUGAL muš-ke-e-nu | |
| 16 | ki-ma SAG.DU ITI | |
| 17 | {d}30 it-ta-mar | |
| 18 | ma-a ra-me-ni | |
| r | ||
| 1 | la u₂-šar-ra | |
| 2 | ma-a SAG.DU ITI šu-u₂ | |
| 3 | NINDA-MEŠ la-a-kul GEŠTIN-MEŠ | |
| 4 | la-as-si u₂-ma-a | |
| 5 | {mul}SAG.ME.GAR {d}30 šu-u | |
| 6 | ša₂ MU.AN.NA gab-bi a-na hur | |
| 7 | LUGAL NINDA-MEŠ le-re-eš | |
| 8 | TA@v ŠA₃-bi-ni | |
| 9 | ni-id-du-bu-ub | |
| 10 | ni-ip-ta-⸢lah₃⸣ ina UGU | |
| 11 | a-na LUGAL ni-is-sap-ra | |
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.