The Correspondence of Sargon, Part I: Letters from Assyria and the West

by Simo Parpola

The State Archives of Assyria project is an ambitious computerized program that aims to present the entire extant corpus of Neo-Assyrian texts in transliteration and translation. The present volume is one of four to be devoted to the correspondence of Sargon, founder of the last imperial dynasty of Assyria, and his officials. 258 letters are treated, many of which have previously appeared only in cuneiform copies; three fragments were hitherto quite unpublished. The text editions―transliterations and translations side by side, with a minimum of apparatus criticus―are liberally interspersed with photographs and line-drawings of basreliefs from various Assyrian palaces, which illustrate passages in the correspondence. A glossary introduces the various indexes. The volume closes with autograph collations of difficult or broken passages.

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1987

About the author

Simo Parpola is a Finnish archaeologist, currently professor of Assyriology at the University of Helsinki. He specialized in epigraphy of the Akkadian language, and has been working on the Neo-Assyrian Text Corpus Project since 1987. He is also Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society.
Parpola re-interpreted various Assyrian tablets in the terms of these primitive Sephirot, such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, and concluded that the scribes had been writing philosophical-mystical tracts rather than mere adventure stories. Traces of this Assyrian mode of thought and philosophy eventually reappeared in Greek Philosophy and the Kabbalah.
Parpola is a strong advocate of Assyrianism, supporting the link between the modern Assyrians and their ancient ancestors. He argues for a direct link between the ancient Assyrians and those who call themselves and their Aramaic language Assyrian today. He is also the chairman of The Finland Assyria Association (Suomi-Assyria Yhdistys).