Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 168. Fragment Similar to No. 156 (AGS 125+) [appointment]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336101

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4
High confidence
(1) [Šamaš, great lord], g[ive me] a firm positive answer to what I am asking you! (2) Should [Esarhaddon, king of Assy]ria, app[oint the man whose name is w]ritten [in] this papyrus [and placed before] your great [divinity], to a posit[ion of his choos]ing? (6) [Will he make an uprising and rebellion aga]inst Esarhaddon, k[ing of Assyria]? (Break) (r 1) [Be present in this ram], place (in it) [a firm positive answer, favorable designs, favorable, propitious omens by the oracular command] of your great [divinity], and [may I see (them)]. (r 2) May (this query) go [to your great divin]ity, O…

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[dUTU EN GAL-ú] šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-[pal-an-ni] / [LÚ šá MU-šú i-na] ŠÀ-bi ni-ʾa-ra an-na-a ⸢šá⸣-[aṭ-ru-ma] / [i-na IGI DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-ti [GAR-un] / [mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš]-⸢šur⸣.KI a-na EN—pi-qit-[tu-ú-ti] / [KI ŠÀ-ba-šú ub]-lu li-ip-⸢qid⸣-[su] / [si-ḫu bar-tu ana] ⸢UGU⸣-ḫi mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [KUR—aš-šur.KI] / [x x šá KA DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-ti šuk-nam-ma…

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 P336101.

Attribution

Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336101/..
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/P336101/.

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