Position in chronology
SAA 04 072. Fragment Similar to No. 71 [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) will they, [as long as they are in the district of ...], march about [wherever they wish]? (3) [Will they attain their objective], will they re[turn aliv]e [from that (expedition), and set foot on Assyrian soil]? (r 1) [Does yo]ur gre[at divinity know it? Is it decreed and confirmed in a favorable case, by the com]mand of your great divinity, [Šamaš, great lord]? Will he who can see, [see it? Will he who can hear, hear it]? (Rest destroyed)
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/P239273/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x] ši ⸢x x⸣ [x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x DU].⸢DU⸣-MEŠ-ku-[ú x x x x x x] / [x x x bal-ṭu-us-su]-⸢un⸣ GUR-[MEŠ-né-e mi-ṣir KUR—aš-šur] / [i-kab-ba-su-ú DINGIR-ut]-⸢ka GAL⸣-[ti ZU-e] / [i-na SILIM-tim i-na] ⸢KA⸣ DINGIR-ti-ka ⸢GAL⸣-[ti dUTU EN GAL-ú] / [qa-bi-i ku-un-i] IGI-ri [IGI-ra ŠE-ú ŠE-e x x 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 P239273.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239273). 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/P239273/.
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