Position in chronology
SAA 04 169. Fragment Similar to No. 156 (PRT 047) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... Esarhad]don, ki[ng of Assyria, ......]? (2) [...] Will he speak [evil things and] malicious [wor]ds [against] Esarhaddon, k[ing of Assyria, and make an insurrection and rebellion against him]? (4) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case], be it good, be it faulty, (and that) a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep. (5) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity for the performance of the extis]picy is deficient [or faulty]. (6) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sheep] is dressed in his [ordinary] soiled…
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/P240279/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x mAN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ]—⸢SUM⸣-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [KUR—AN.ŠÁR.KI] / [x x x x x a-na UGU m]AN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ—SUM-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [KUR—AN.ŠÁR.KI] / [a-mat ḪUL-tim dib]-⸢bi⸣ bi-iʾ-šu-ti i-dab-bu-[bu-ú si-ḫu bar-tu ana UGU-šú ip-pu-šú] / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mu NE]-i GIM DÙG-ab GIM LAL-ú KUG lu-ʾu-u UDU.NÍTA ⸢TAG⸣-[MEŠ] / [e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ]-ú LAL-ú [ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá TAG-it pu-ut UDU.NÍTA…
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 P240279.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240279). 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/P240279/.
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