Position in chronology
SAA 04 156. Should Esarhaddon Appoint NN to an Office? (AGS 116+) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Šamaš, great lord, give me a firm positive answer to what I am asking you! (2) Should Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, appoint [the ma]n whose name is written in this papyrus and placed before your great divinity, [to the po]sition which is written in [th]is papyrus? (5) If he appoints him, [as] long as he holds this position, will he instigate an insurrection and rebellion against Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and [Assu]rbanipal, the crown prince of the Succession Palace? (9) Will he cause others to instigate it? Will he order it, or cause others to [or]der it? Will he plot it (or) cause…
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/P336093/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[d]UTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-an-ni / [a-me]-⸢lu⸣ šá MU-šú i-na ni-ia-a-ri an-na-a šá-aṭ-ru-ú-ma / [a-na] IGI DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti GAR-un mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI / [a-na] ⸢pi⸣-qit-tu-ú-ti šá i-na ŠÀ-bi ni-ia-ri-im-ma / [an]-⸢na⸣-a šá-aṭ-rat-tú li-ip-qi-su GIM ip-⸢taq⸣-du-uš / [a]-⸢di⸣ UD-MEŠ mál pi-qi-tu-ú-tú šu-a-⸢tú ip⸣-pu-šú / [si]-ḫu ḪI.GAR a-na UGU…
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 P336093.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336093). 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/P336093/.
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.