ABL 0656 (P334456)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 0656 |
|---|---|
| ID | P334456 |
| 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 [0:4] o 1o 1–o 44 | To the king, my lord: your servant [Ad]ad-šumu-uṣur. Good [health to the king], my lord! May [Nabû and Marduk] bless [the king], m[y lord]! |
| Obverse [5:6] o 66–o 66 | [...... Sin-per'u]-ukin |
| Obverse [8:11] o 99–o 1111 | [......] "Say [in the presence of the ki]ng |
| Reverse [1:4] r 2'2'–r 4'4' | [...] will reco[ver]; all the [...] are weep[ing], [...] will recover. |
| Reverse [4:10] r 5'5'–r 10'10' | He said [as] follows: "The god told me, 'If you do not tell, you will die; and if you tell it to somebody belonging to the entourage of the king, and he does not make it known in the palace, he will die.' |
| Reverse [10:15] r 11'11'–r 15'15' | "My mother was charged to go, (but) she did not tell (anything) in the palace. (Instead) she spoke in the presence of Bi[...] and his wife and sister. None of them told anything, and she and the others died." |
| Reverse [15:20] r 16'16'–r 20'20' | Now that (the illness of) the king is being taken away, he (finally) spoke out to me, and I wrote to the king, my lord. Is it not said in the treaty as follows: "Anyone who hears something (but) does not inform the king ..." |
| Reverse [20:21] r 21'21'–r 21'21' | Let them now summon him and question him! |
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 be-li₂-ia | |
| 2 | ARAD-⸢ka⸣ {1}{d]}⸢IM—MU—u₂⸣-ṣur | |
| 3 | lu ⸢DI⸣-[mu a-na LUGAL] be-li₂-ia | |
| 4 | {d}[AG {d}AMAR.UTU a-na LUGAL EN]-⸢ia⸣ lik-ru-bu | |
| 5 | [x x x x x x x x x]-e | |
| 6 | [x x x x x x {1}{d}30—NUNUZ]—GIN-in | |
| 7 | [x x x x x x x x x x]-ia | |
| 8 | [x x x x x x x x x x] ANŠE | |
| 9 | [i-du-bu-ub ma-a ina IGI] ⸢LUGAL⸣ qi-bi | |
| 10 | [ma-a x x x x x x x x]-ša₂ | |
| 11 | [x x x x x x x x x x]-⸢us⸣ | |
| r | ||
| 1' | [x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣+[x x x x] | |
| 2' | [x x x x x] i-bal-⸢la⸣-[aṭ] | |
| 3' | [x x x x x] gab-bu i-bak-⸢ki⸣-[u] | |
| 4' | [x x x x x] i-bal-la-⸢aṭ⸣ | |
| 5' | [ki-i] ⸢an-ni-i⸣ iq-ṭe₃-bi | |
| 6' | [ma-a] DINGIR iq-ṭe₃-bi-ia | |
| 7' | [ma-a] šum-ma at-ta la taq-bi ta-mu-⸢at⸣ | |
| 8' | [ma-a] šum-ma a-na {lu₂}ma-za-si—pa-ni {lu₂}ma-za-si—pa-ni | |
| 9' | [ša] LUGAL taq-ṭe₃-bi ina E₂.GAL | |
| 10' | la u₂-ša₂-aš₂-me i-mu-⸢at⸣ | |
| 11' | ma-a um-mi šap-ra-at ta-ta-⸢lak⸣ | |
| 12' | la taq-bi ina E₂.GAL ma-a ina pa-an {1}bi-⸢x⸣+[x x] | |
| 13' | DAM-šu₂ NIN-šu₂ taq-ṭe₃-bi | |
| 14' | me-me-ni ina ŠA₃-bi-šu₂-nu la iq-bi | |
| 15' | ši-i TA@v am-mu-te-em-ma me₂-e-tu₂ | |
| 16' | u₂-ma-a ki-i LUGAL in-na-šar-u-ni | |
| 17' | iq-ṭe₃-bi-ia a-na LUGAL be-li₂-ia | |
| 18' | as-sa-ap-ra la ki-i an-ni-e | |
| 19' | ina ŠA₃ a-de-e qa-bi ma-a man-nu | |
| 20' | ša me-me-ni i-šam-mu-u-ni ina pa-an LUGAL | |
| 21' | la i-qa-bu-u-ni u₂-ma-a | |
| 22' | re-es-su liš-ši-u₂ liš-u₂-lu-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.