ABL 1186 (P424868)
Letter, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ABL 1186 |
|---|---|
| ID | P424868 |
| 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/saa21 · Via Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC)
| Line | English |
|---|---|
| Obverse [1:2] o 2'2'–o 2'2' | [who] were bringing you troops. |
| Obverse [2:7] o 3'3'–o 7'7' | But you, when you saw this, why did you not kill those who were to be killed and take prisoners those who were to be taken prisoners? Certainly (the troops) who came were not more numerous than you! |
| Obverse [7:11] o 8'8'–o 11'11' | Now fear not, but guard my temples. He is shut up in the city with all his forces, and my army is surrounding him. |
| Obverse [11:14] o 12'12'–o 14'14' | Now, wherever you see a messenger of his, kill those who are to be killed and take prisoners those who are to be taken prisoners. |
| Reverse [0:4] r 1'1'–r 4'4' | (Rest destroyed or too broken for translation) |
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' | ṣab-⸢bi⸣-[ta] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x] | |
| 2' | e-mu-⸢qe⸣-e ⸢u₂-še⸣-bal-⸢u₂-nak-ku⸣-[nu] | |
| 3' | u₃ at-tu-nu a-ta-a ki-i | |
| 4' | an-ni-u₂ ta-mur-a-ni ša du-a-ki | |
| 5' | la ta-du-u₂-ka ša₂ ṣa-ba-te | |
| 6' | la ta-aṣ-ba-ta ša₂ il-lik-u₂-nin-ni | |
| 7' | šu-nu-u₂ ina UGU-hi-ku-nu ma-aʾ-du | |
| 8' | u₂-ma-a la ta-pal-la-ha | |
| 9' | EN.NUN ša E₂—DINGIR-MEŠ-ia₂ E₂—DINGIR-MEŠ-ia₂ uṣ-ra | |
| 10' | šu-u₂ gab-bi-šu₂-ma ina ŠA₃ URU e-sir₂ | |
| 11' | u₃ e-mu-qi-ia la-bi-u₂-šu₂ | |
| 12' | u₂-ma-a be₂-et {lu₂}A—KIN-šu₂ {lu₂}A—KIN-šu₂ | |
| 13' | tam-mar-a-ni ša du-a-ki | |
| 14' | ⸢du-u₂⸣-ka ša₂ ṣa-ba-te ṣab-ta | |
| r | ||
| 1' | ina [x x x x x x x x x] | |
| 2' | ki-⸢i⸣ [x x x x x x x x] | |
| 3' | 10 ⸢EN⸣ [x x x x x x x] | |
| 4' | ep-pa-[x x x x x 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.