Position in chronology
SAA 04 085. Fragment Similar to No. 84 [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [I ask you, Šamaš, great lord, whether, should the subject] of this query, [Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, from the begin]ning of the coming year un[til the month Tammuz of the com]ing [year], for ... days and ni[ghts, the stipulated term], take [the ro]ad and [go to Egypt], (r 6) he will [safely] come [back to] Nineveh. (r 7) Be pr[esent in th]is ram, [place (in it) a firm positive answer], favorable, propitious [om]ens by [the oracular command of your great divinity], and may I [see (them)]. (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/P336610/
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[...] ... [... I ask you, O Šamaš, great lord,] / [whether, as 'lord]-of-the-name-of-the-born,' [Esarhaddon, king of Assyria,] / [from] the beginning of the year of his birth until [the month of Du'ūzu of that year,] / [that] year, in ... days, dark [days — the appointed time being set —] / [whether] they will take [the road,] the route, and [go to Egypt;] / [whether safely] they will come to Nineveh [and ...] / [In this ram] stand [present,] / [and grant a reliable 'yes': favourable] omens, a favourable extispicy, as a sign [of your great divinity;] / [grant it, that] I may [see it.] / [...] ... [......................................]
6 uncertain terms ↓
- ki-i EN—MU.MU NE-i — Standard oracle-query formula: 'whether, as lord-of-the-name-of-the-born'; the precise theological nuance of EN—MU.MU (bēl šum alidi, 'lord of the birth-name'?) remains debated. Starr renders it as a fixed expression addressing Šamaš in his role as destiny-determiner at birth.
- ina ⸢x⸣-ma? UD-MEŠ ⸢MI⸣-MEŠ — The intermediate sign(s) between ina and UD-MEŠ are broken/uncertain; 'dark days' (UD-MEŠ MI-MEŠ) is a standard idiom for inauspicious or ominous days in Assyrian divination texts.
- ši-kin a-dan-ni — Restoration 'the appointed time being set' — adan/adannu = fixed term, deadline; restored from parallel queries in SAA 04.
- KASKAL.2 i-ṣab-ba-tú-ma — KASKAL.2 = urḫa (road/route, dual or plural form); i-ṣab-ba-tú-ma = they will seize/take (the road). The subject is presumably the army or its commanders.
- KUR.mu-uṣ-ri — Egypt (Muṣur/Miṣir); the campaign to Egypt is consistent with Esarhaddon's known military activity, especially his 671 BCE campaign.
- an-na GI.NA UZU-MEŠ ta-mit SIG₅-MEŠ GI-MEŠ — Technical extispicy formula: 'a reliable yes, favourable omens, a favourable extispicy (lit. 'reading of the flesh')'; GI.NA = kīnu (reliable/true); ta-mit = tāmītu, oracular query or extispicy result; SIG₅ = ṭābu (good/favourable).
Reasoning ↓
LAYER 1 — VISUAL READING: The obverse of the tablet (upper panel) shows a fragment roughly 5–6 cm across (scale bar confirms). The surface is heavily eroded, reddish-brown fired clay. Multiple horizontal lines of cuneiform wedges are visible but severely abraded; individual sign clusters can be made out in the upper two-thirds of the face, becoming almost illegible toward the lower margin. The ink accession number '81 / 2-4 / 346' is stencilled in the centre of the obverse — consistent with British Museum accessioning for the 1881 Kuyunjik purchase (BM 81-2-4, 346). The reverse (large lower panel) shows only a badly pitted, featureless surface with no legible signs. LAYER 2 — TRANSLITERATION: The text belongs to the well-known Esarhaddon oracle-query corpus (SAA 04 type); the standard formulae for solar divination — address to Šamaš, the name formula, the time-frame query, road/campaign question, and the closing sheep-entrail petition — are all recognisable. The name mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na = Aššur-aḫa-iddina = Esarhaddon is restored in brackets by the editor. CROSS-CHECK: At the image resolution available I can confirm the presence of multiple cuneiform lines on the obverse and the general block-script appearance consistent with Neo-Assyrian ductus, but individual signs are too abraded and the photo too small to verify specific readings against the transliteration. The reverse is completely unreadable from the photo. No discrepancies can be flagged because verification is not possible; the transliteration is accepted on editorial authority. Compare SAA 04 084 and the parallel oracle-inquiry texts discussed in Starr 1990, SAA 04 introduction.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3385 in / 1300 out tokens
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x] ⸢x x x⸣ [x a-šal-ka dUTU EN GAL-ú] / [ki-i EN]—MU.MU NE-i [mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI] / [TA] ⸢SAG⸣ MU.AN.NA TU-ti ⸢EN⸣ [ITI.ŠU šá MU.AN.NA] / [TU]-⸢ti⸣ ina ⸢x⸣-ma? UD-MEŠ ⸢MI⸣-[MEŠ ši-kin a-dan-ni] / [ur-ḫa] ⸢KASKAL⸣.2 i-ṣab-ba-tú-ma [a-na KUR.mu-uṣ-ri il-la-ku] / [šal-meš a]-⸢na⸣ NINA.KI DU-kám-[ma x x x x x] / [i-na ŠÀ UDU.NÍTA an]-⸢ni⸣-e ⸢GUB⸣-[za-am-ma] / [an-na GI.NA UZU]-MEŠ ta-mit SIG₅-MEŠ GI-MEŠ šá [KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti] / [šuk-nam-ma] lu-[mur] / [x x x x] ta [x x x x x 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 P336610.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336610). 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/P336610/.
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