Position in chronology
SAA 04 067. Fragment Similar to No. 66 (AGS 031) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that ...] behind the enemy [......]. (2) [Disregard that an u]nclean man or woman [has come near the place of the extispicy and made it unclean]. (r 1) [Disregar]d that he who touches the forehead of the sheep [is dressed in his] ordi[nary soiled] garments, has eaten, drunk, or anointed himself with anything unclean, (or) [has altered or changed the proceedings]. (r 3) Disregard that the ora[cle query has become jumbled] in the mouth of the haruspex, your servant.Let them be taken out and [put aside]! (r 4) I ask [you, Šamaš, great lord], whether the…
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/P237213/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá x x x x x] EGIR-a LÚ.KÚR [x x x x x] / [e-zib šá] ⸢lu⸣-ʾu-ú lu-ʾi-i-⸢ti⸣ [KI MÁŠ DIB.DIB-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / [e]-⸢zib⸣ šá TAG-it SAG.[KI] UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-⸢né⸣-[e-šú ar-šat lab-šú] / ⸢mim⸣-ma ⸢lu⸣-ʾu-ú KÚ ⸢NAG⸣-ú ŠÉŠ-šú ú—⸢lu⸣ [ku-un qa-ti BAL-u uš-pe-lu] / e-zib šá i-⸢na⸣ <KA> DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka ⸢ta⸣-[mit up-tar-ri-du] / lu-ú ZI-MEŠ lu-ú [BAR-MEŠ] a-šal-[ka dUTU EN GAL-ú] / ki-i…
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 P237213.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237213). 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/P237213/.
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