SAA 04 035. Will Scythian and Cimmerian Troops Invade Bit-Hamban? (AGS 036) [military and political]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P238891

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(1) [Šamaš, great lord], give [me] a firm [positive answer to what I am asking you]! (2) [From this day, the 25th day of this month], Sivan (III), to the 24th day [of the coming month, Tammuz (IV), of this year, 30 days] and nights, the stipulated t[erm] — (4) [within this stipulated term, will the troops of] the Scythians, (and) the tro[ops of the Cimmerians emerge from the pass of ... to Bit]-Hamba[n ......] (Break) (r 2) [...... The 'finger' is th]ick. The upper part is eleva[ted ......]. (r 3) [...... The 'station' is pre]sent. The 'path' is present. The 'strength' and 'well-being' are…

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na] ⸢GI⸣.NA a-pal-[an-ni] / [TA UD an-ni-i UD 25-KAM šá ITI an-ni-i] ITI.SIG₄ a-di UD 24-[KAM] / [šá ITI TU-ba ITI.ŠU šá MU.AN.NA NE-ti 30 UD-MEŠ] 30 MI-MEŠ ši-kin a-[dan-ni] / [i-na ši-kin a-dan-ni šu-a-tu LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ] LÚ.iš-ku-za-a.a LÚ.[ERIM-MEŠ] / [LÚ.gi-mir-ra-a.a TA né-ri-bi šá URU.x x x a-na É]—⸢URU⸣.ḫa-am-⸢ban⸣ [x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x BE U]…

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 P238891.

Attribution

Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238891/..
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/P238891/.

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