ABL 0385 (P334261)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 0385 |
|---|---|
| ID | P334261 |
| 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 [5:10] o 66–o 1010 | As to what the king, my lord, wrote to me: "Does (the omen) '(If something) passes between the legs of a man' apply to something that came out from underneath a chariot?" — it does apply. |
| Obverse [10:18] o 1111– | The king, my lord, say[s]: "'The legs of a m[an]' (means) 'legs' (only) when (something literally) emerges between a man's (legs); that [mongoose passed] between [...]" — perhaps [...] |
| Reverse [0:7] r 1r 1–r 77 | We still take it as a portent. The [mongoose] pa[ssed] from the left to the right and em[erged] from underneath the chariot. As for 'the legs of a m[an]' about which the king, my lord, s[poke], this is the [relevant] int[erpretation]: |
| Reverse [7:10] r 88–r 1010 | If a mongoose pa[sses] bet[ween] the legs of a man, the hand of a god or the hand of a king will seize him. |
| Reverse [10:15] r 1111–r 1515 | Let us say 'mercy' for the Nabataeans. Why? — Are they not hostile kings? They will not submit beneath the chariot of the king, my lord! |
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-ia lik-ru-bu | |
| 6 | ša LUGAL be-li iš-pur-an-ni | |
| 7 | ma-a u₂-la ina bi-rit pu-ri-di | |
| 8 | a-me-li e-ti-iq | |
| 9 | ina UGU ša šap-la {giš}GIGIR-e | |
| 10 | tu-ṣu-u-ni ina UGU-hi šu-⸢u⸣ | |
| 11 | LUGAL be-li i-qab-[bi] | |
| 12 | ma-a pu-ri-di ⸢a⸣-[me-li] | |
| 13 | pu-ri-di ki-ma ⸢bi-rit⸣ [pu-ri-di] | |
| 14 | ša LU₂ u₂-⸢ṣa⸣ {[d}NIN.KILIM] | |
| 15 | šu-u bi-⸢rit⸣ [x x x (x)] | |
| 16 | is—⸢su-ri x⸣+[x x x] | |
| 17 | ⸢x⸣+[x x] ⸢x x⸣ [x x x] | |
| r | ||
| 1 | a-na it-ti-ma | |
| 2 | nu-ka-al šu-u {d}[NIN.KILIM] | |
| 3 | TA@v KAB a-na ZAG ⸢e⸣-[te-ti-iq] | |
| 4 | šap-la {giš}GIGIR it-[tu-ṣi] | |
| 5 | ša pu-ri-di ⸢a⸣-[me-li] | |
| 6 | ša LUGAL be-li ⸢iq⸣-[bu-u-ni] | |
| 7 | an-ni-u pi-[šir₃-šu₂] | |
| 8 | 1 {d}NIN.KILIM ina ⸢bi⸣-[rit] | |
| 9 | PAB.HAL LU₂ e-[ti-iq] | |
| 10 | lu-u ŠU DINGIR lu-u ⸢ŠU LUGAL⸣ KUR-su | |
| 11 | a-hu-lam-ma {lu₂}na-ba-a.a-ti | |
| 12 | ni-iq-bi a-ta-a | |
| 13 | la LUGAL-MEŠ nak-ru-ti šu₂-nu | |
| 14 | šap-la {giš}mu-gir-ri | |
| 15 | ša LUGAL EN-ia | |
| 16 | la i-ka-an-nu-šu₂ | |
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.