Position in chronology
SAA 04 134. Fragment Similar to No. 132 (PRT 057) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Will whatever is written in this papyrus and placed] before [your great] divinity [be] successfully [accomplished]? (3) [Does] your great divinity [know it? Is it decreed and confirmed] in a favorable case, b[y the command of your great divinity], Šamaš, great lord? Will he who can see, see it? [Will he who can hear, hear it]? (7) Disregard that the ram (offered) [to your divinity for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (Break) (r 1) [Disregard that] I, [the haruspex your servant, am dressed in my ordinary] soiled [garments], have s[een fear]…
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/P237698/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢i-na IGI DINGIR-ti⸣-[ka GAL-ti GAR-un] / i-šal-li-i-mi [in-né-ep-pu-u-šu] / 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-ru IGI-[ra ŠE.GA-ú ŠE.GA-e] / [e]-zib šá UDU.NÍTA [DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [mim]-ma [x x x x x x x x] / [x] na ⸢an⸣ [x x x x x x x] / [e-zib šá a-na]-⸢ku⸣ [DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka TÚG…
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 P237698.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237698). 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/P237698/.
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