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Amarna letter EA 153

Amarna letter EA 153, titled Ships on Hold, is a short-length clay tablet letter from Abimilku of the city-state of Tyre, an island at the time. The tablet is one of over three hundred Amarna letters.

EA 153 is approximately × . It has a missing flaked, lower right corner on its obverse affecting two lines of text. One line repeats "...King, Lord-mine...", leaving only one line for more difficult restoration.

The letter shows a high-gloss surface on the clay tablet and, being a short letter, only has between five and nine cuneiform characters per line. It contains one special cuneiform sign for ship, MÁ, a sign used in both the Amarna letters and the Epic of Gilgamesh. The letter's scribe used mostly "very-short" stroked, and "fat-and-rounded" cuneiform strokes, instead of the more arrow-shaped, sharp, and linear strokes, . Since the letter also has distinct, medium-sized wedge strokes (for example, be ) as well as L-shaped strokes (from an angled stylus), the scribe may have used two or more styluses.

The clay tablet letter is located in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, catalogued as object number 24.2.12.

EA 153, obverse, bottom, and last lines

Moran's non-linear letter English language translation (translated from the French language):

(Lines 1-3)--[To] the king, my lord: [Mes]sage of Abimilku,<sup>1</sup> your servant. I fall at your feet 7 times and 7 times. ( "7 and 7 times" )
(4-5)--I have carried out what the king, my lord, ordered.
(2 repeat sections, 3 lines each)
:(6-8)--The entire land-("country-side") is afraid of the troops of the king, my lord.
:(9-11)--I have had my men hold ships at the disposition of the troops of the king, my lord.
(12-16)--Whoever has disobeyed has no family, has nothing alive. Since I gua[rd the ci]ty of the king, [my] lo[rd],
(obverse-bottom & reverse)
(17-20)--m[y] s[afety] is the king's responsibility. [May he take cognizance] of his servant who is on his side.<sup>2</sup>--(obverse, bottom edge, and top of reverse, with lacunae restored, lines 1-20 complete)

EA 153, Akkadian text

The Akkadian language text, Metropolitan Museum of Art (Spar 1988).

Obverse
-(Line 1)--[ ana ] LUGAL EN-lí-ia
-(2)--[u]m-ma <sup>I</sup>Ia-Bi-LUGAL [ ÌR ]-ka
-(3)--7 u 7 ana GÌR.MEŠ-ka am-qut
-(4)--Å¡a i[q-b ]i LUGAL be-li-ia
-(5)--šu-[ ut ] e-te-pu-uš
-(6)--pal-ha-at gabbu
-(7)--KUR-ti ištu pānu
-(8)--(ÉRIN)ERIM.MEŠLUGAL EN-lí-ia
-(9)--su-hi-iz-ti LÚ.MEÅÂ-ia
-(10)--<sup>GIÅÂ</sup>MÁ.MEÅ ana pānu
-(11)--(ÉRIN)ERIM.MEŠLUGAL be-li-ia
-(12)--ù ša la iš-te-mi
-(13)--iānu É-šu iānu
-(14)--bal-tá-šu an-nu-ú
-(15)--ana-an-ṣ[ár UR ] U(?)
-(16)--LUGAL be-[ li-ia
Lower Edge
-(17)--[ Å¡u-ul ]-m[i]
-(18)--mu-hi LUGAL li-<nowiki>[[</nowiki>-[de]
Reverse
-(19)--ana ÌR-šu ša
-(20--itti-Å¡u

See also

References

  • Moran, William L. The Amarna Letters. Johns Hopkins University Press, 1987, 1992. (softcover, )
  • Spar, Ira. (1988) Cuneiform Texts in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: Tablets, Cones, and Bricks of the Third and Second Millennia B.C., Vol. 1., EA 153, pp.&nbsp;150–151. (New York, 1988)

EA 153 photo gallery

External links