Position in chronology
SAA 04 152. Should Esarhaddon Admit NN to his Entourage? (AGS 046+) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord], giv[e me] a firm positive answer to what I am asking you! (2) [Esarhad]don, king of Assyria, who has now written the name of a man of his choosing [in the papy]rus and [placed it] before your gre[at] divinity, and (whom) your great divinity [knows] — (5) [in accordance with the com]mand of your great divinity, Šamaš, great lord, and [your favorable dec]isions, should [the subject of th]is [query], Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, [strive and plan]? (7) Should he bring [that man] (before him) and take him into his entourage? [Is it pleasing to your great divi]nity? (8) [If…
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/P237360/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL]-⸢ú⸣ šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-⸢an⸣-[ni] / [mAN.ŠÁR]—⸢ŠEŠ⸣—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—AN.ŠÁR šá TA-an-ni LÚ šá ŠÀ-ba-šú ub-[lu] / [i-na na-a.a]-ru MU-šú iš-ṭu-ru-ma ina IGI DINGIR-ti-ka ⸢GAL⸣-[ti] / [iš]-⸢kun⸣-ma DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti [ZU-u] / [GIM] ⸢KA⸣ DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU EN GAL-[ú] EŠ.⸢BAR⸣-[ka šal-mu] / [EN—MU.MU] ⸢NE⸣-i mAN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—AN.ŠÁR ⸢li⸣-[iṣ-rim…
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 P237360.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237360). 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/P237360/.
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.