Position in chronology
SAA 04 068. Fragment Similar to No. 66 (PRT 023) [military and political]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(1) Šamaš, great lord, [give me a firm positive answer] to what I am as[king you]! (2) [Will] the governors, magnates, [soldiers, horses, and army of] Esar[haddon, king of Assyria, in Bit-Kari] (Break) (r 1) [Be present in this ram, place (in it) a firm positive answer, favorable designs, fav]orable, propi[tious omens by the oracular command of] your great [divin]ity, [and may I see (them)]. (r 3) [May (this query) go] to your [great] divinity, O Šamaš, great lord, [and may an oracle be given as an answer]. (r 5) The middle of the 'station' is split: not good. [......]. (r 6) The lower part is elevated and is dark [......]. (r 7) The breas[t-b]one is thick. The coils [of the colon ......].
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] / LÚ.EN.NAM-MEŠ LÚ.GAL-[MEŠ ERIM-MEŠ ANŠE.KUR.RA-MEŠ e-mu-qu] / [šá] mdaš-šur—⸢ŠEŠ⸣—[SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI šá ina É—ka-a-ri] / [UZU-MEŠ ta-mit SIG₅]-MEŠ SILIM-[MEŠ šá SILIM-tim] / [šá KA DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-ti [šuk-nam-ma lu-mur] / ⸢UGU⸣ DINGIR-ti-⸢ka⸣ [GAL-ti] / dUTU EN GAL-[ú lil-lik-ma KIN li-tap-pal] / BE ⸢MURUB₄⸣ NA DU₈ ul ba-ni [x x x x] / BE KI.TA-tum DU-ik u MI [x x x x] / BE GAG.⸢ZAG⸣.GA e-bi ŠÀ.[NIGIN x x]
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 P240321.
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/P240321/..
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/P240321/.
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