Position in chronology
SAA 04 080. Fragment Similar to No. 79 (AGS 023+) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Will Ša-Nabû-šû, chief eunuch, with his army escape] from [...ian troops, ...ian troops, Median troops], Cimmer[ian troops, or any other enemy, will they be saved, survive], be we[ll? Will they evade them and get out], (5) [will they achieve] victory [and power? Will the chief eunuch and his army return] safely [and set foot on Assyrian soil]? (7) [Does] your great di[vinity know it? Is it decreed and confirmed in a favorable case, by the command of your great divinity], Šamaš, great lord? [Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear, hear it]? (9) [Disreg]ard…
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/P336045/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[mšá—dPA—šú-ú LÚ.GAL—SAG-MEŠ a-di Á.KAL-MEŠ mál it-ti-šú i-na ŠU.2 LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ KUR.x x x x] / [i]-⸢na ŠU⸣.[2 ERIM-MEŠ LÚ.x x-a.a i-na ŠU.2 ERIM-MEŠ LÚ.ma-ta-a.a i-na ŠU.2 LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ] / ⸢LÚ⸣.gi-⸢mir⸣-[ra-a.a i-na ŠU.2 LÚ.KÚR mál GÁL-ú i-šet-tu-ú KAR-ú TI-ú] / i-šal-li-⸢mu⸣-[ú lu-ú TA ŠU.2-šu-un uš-te-zi-bu-ú uš-te-ṣu-ú] / lu-ú li-i-[tu da-na-nu i-šak-ka-nu LÚ.GAL—SAG-MEŠ a-di Á.KAL-MEŠ mál…
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 P336045.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336045). 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/P336045/.
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.