Amarna letter EA 205, titled: "Ready for Marching Orders (5)"[1] is a short letter from the Ruler of city Ṭubu. The title references that six mostly identical, very short, letters were scribed by the same scribe, from small regional towns; the scribe also is the writer of Amarna letter EA 195. It is not known if each letter was written at the location of each town, or from an alternative site, or sites.
The six towns are:
The Amarna letters, about 300, numbered up to EA 382, are a mid 14th century BC, about 1350 BC and 20–25 years later, correspondence. The initial corpus of letters were found at Akhenaten's city Akhetaten, in the floor of the Bureau of Correspondence of Pharaoh; others were later found, adding to the body of letters.
EA 205, letter number one of one, from the small town of Tubu (Biblical Tob). (Not a linear, line-by-line translation.)[2]
Obverse
Reverse
Cuneiform score (per CDLI, Chicago Digital Library Initiative),[3] and Akkadian, and English.
Obverse
Paragraph I, (lines 1-8)
1.A-na 1=dišlugal _EN_-ia
___Ana 1=dišŠÀR(ru) Bēlu-ia
___To m=male=diš, 1King Lord-mine
2.qí— ——- bil— ——-ma
___qabû — !
___ Speaking — !
3.um-ma diš-LÚ _iri_ Ṭù-bu
___umma diš-amēlu iri/URU Ṭù-bu
___ Message m=male=diš, 1Man, city(town)(city-state) Ṭubu (Biblical Tob)
4. _ARÁD_-ka a-na _gìri-meš_
___ ARÁD-ka, – ana gìri-meš
___ Servant-yours, – at (the) feetpl.
5. 1=diš ŠÀR-(ru) be-li-ia
___ 1=m=male=diš Šàrru bēlu-ia
___ m=male=diš, 1King, Lord-mine
Obverse
11.a-na pa-ni
___ana pānu
___"Before"
12. _erín-meš-_ pí-ṭá-te
___ erín-meš pí-ṭá-te
___ armypl. pitati