The Hymn of the Righteous Sufferer is an ancient work from Mesopotamia. As with most ancient works, little is known about its specific origins. We do not know who wrote it or when it was written. In fact, we do not even have the entire text. Some scholars place it in the second millennium bce, but others place it in the middle of the first millennium bce. At best, we can place it in about 1770–600 bce. These gaps in our knowledge notwithstanding, this text must have been very popular, because fragments of it have been found in both Assur, in what is now Iraq, and Sultantepe, in what is now the Urfa (or Sanhurfa) province of Turkey.