Position in chronology
SAA 04 030. Will Army of Assyria Retake Dur-Illil? (AGS 019) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord], give me a fi[rm positive answer to what I am asking you]! (2) [Dur-Illil, a fortress of Esarhaddo]n, king of Assyria, located on the border [of Mannea, which the Manneans captured] and took possession of — (4) should [NN together with men, hors]es, and an army, as (great as) he wishes, go [to capture that city, Dur-Il]lil and (will they), (6) be it by means of [war, or by means of friendliness and peace]ful negotiations, [or by means of a tunnel or breach, or by means of] hunger, (8) or through lack [of soldiers in the city], or by means of ramps, [or by ...]..., o[r…
Source: Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P237224/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na GI].NA a-pal-an-ni / [URU.BÀD—dEN.LÍL bir-tu šá mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM]-⸢na⸣ LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI šá i-na UGU ta-ḫu-mu / [šá KUR.man-na-a.a na-du-ma LÚ.man-na-a.a DIB-MEŠ]-ma a-na šá ram-ni-šú-un ú-tir-ru-uš / [x x x x x x a-di ERIM-MEŠ ANŠE.KUR].⸢RA⸣-MEŠ e-mu-qu ma-al ŠÀ-ba-šú ub-lu / [a-na ṣa-ba-a-ta URU šá-a-šú URU.BÀD—d]⸢EN⸣.LÍL lil-li-ku lu-ú ina DÙ-eš /…
Scholarly note
Extispicy query addressed to Šamaš, the sungod and patron of divination, edited by Ivan Starr (SAA 4, 1990). The king asks the deity to render a yes/no verdict on a political or military question. ORACC text P237224.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237224). source
Translation excerpted from Starr, I. 1990. Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria. SAA 4. Helsinki: Helsinki University Press. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/saao/saa04/P237224/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.