Position in chronology
SAA 04 155. Fragment Similar to No. 154 (AGS 124) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) Or [will someone cause him to plot it, and will he listen, and] set [out on disobedience? Or will he act with evil intent against him]? (Break) (r 1) Disreg[ard that ......]. (r 2) Disregard that [I, the haruspex your servant, have jumbled the oracle query in my mouth, or changed (or) altered] the pro[ceedings.Let them be taken out and put aside]! (r 4) I ask you, [Šamaš, great lord], whether, (should) Esarhaddon, [king of Assyria, admit the man whose name is writ]ten [in] this [papyrus and placed before your great divinity, into his entourage], (r 7) [he will…
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/P336100/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢lu⸣-ú [ma-am-ma ú-šad-ba-ab-šú lu-ú šu-ú i-šam-me-e a-na la šá-me-e] / IGI-⸢MEŠ⸣-[šú i-šak-ka-a-na lu-ú ŠU.2-su a-na ḪUL-tim a-na ŠÀ-bi-šú ub-ba-a-lu] / e-⸢zib⸣ [šá x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / e-zib šá [a-na-ku DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka ta-mit i-na KA-ia up-tar-ri-du] / ku-un ŠU.[2 BAL-ú uš-pe-lu lu-ú ZI-MEŠ lu-ú BAR-MEŠ] / a-šal-ka [dUTU EN GAL-ú ki-i LÚ šá MU-šú i-na na-a.a-ra] / an-na-a…
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 P336100.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336100). 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/P336100/.
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