Position in chronology
SAA 04 138. Fragment Similar to No. 132 (PRT 065) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...... which he wro]te [in th]is [papyrus and placed before your great divinity]? (2) Is it decr[eed 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]? (4) [Disregard the (formulation) of the prayer for] today's case, [be it good, be it faulty]. (5) [Disregard that a clean or an] unclean person [has touched] the sacrificial sheep, [or blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (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/P237018/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[an]-ni-i ⸢iš⸣-[ṭu-ru x x x x x x] / [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 ik-rib] ⸢di⸣-nim UD-mu NE-[i GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu]-ú SISKUR.SISKUR [TAG-MEŠ ú—lu ana IGI SISKUR.SISKUR GIL-MEŠ-ku]
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 P237018.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237018). 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/P237018/.
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