Position in chronology
SAA 04 164. Fragment Similar to No. 156 (PRT 049) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [Disregard that I, the haruspex your servant, ......] have seen [fear and] terror [at night], or [jumbled the oracle query in my mouth].Let them be taken out and put aside! (r 2) I ask you, Šamaš, [great lord], whether, (should) Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, appoint the man whose name is written in this papyrus and [placed] before yo[ur great] divinity, to the position which is [written] in [this] papyrus, (r 5) (whether) he will, as long as [he holds] this position, instigate [an insurrection and rebellion against] Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, and Assurbanipal,…
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/P236937/
Why it matters
Transliteration
⸢LUḪ⸣-tú pí-rit-ti IGI-ru ú—lu [ta-mit i-na KA-ia up-tar-ri-du] / ⸢lu⸣-ú ZI-MEŠ lu-ú BAR-MEŠ a-šal-ka dUTU [EN GAL-ú] / ki-i LÚ šá MU-šú i-na ni-a-ra an-na-a šaṭ-ru-ma i-na IGI DINGIR-ti-⸢ka⸣ [GAR-un] / mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.KI a-na pi-qí-tu-tu šá i-na ni-a-ra-im-ma [an-na-a šaṭ-rat-tú] / [i-pa-qí-du]-šú-ma ⸢a⸣-di UD-MEŠ mál pi-qí-tu-tu an-ni-ti / [ip-pu-šú si-ḫu ḪI.GAR i-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 P236937.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P236937). 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/P236937/.
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