Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 179. Fragment Similar to No. 178 [appointment]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336617

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman] has come near [the place of the] extispicy [and made it unclean]. (2) [Disregard that] an unclean person [has performed extispicy in this place]. (3) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity] for the performance [of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (4) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the] sheep [is dressed in his ordinary soiled] garments, [has eaten, drunk, or anointed] himself with [anything unclean, (or) has altered or changed] the (ritual) proceedings. (r 1) [Disregard that the oracle query…

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/P336617/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI] ⸢MÁŠ⸣ DIB.DIB-[ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i] lu-ʾu-[ú MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú] / [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 ṣu-bat ⸢gi⸣-[né-e-šú ar-šat lab-šú] / [mim-ma lu-ʾu-ú KÚ NAG ŠÉŠ]-⸢šú⸣ ku-un qa-[ti BAL-ú uš-pe-lu] / [e-zib šá i-na KA DUMU—LÚ].⸢ḪAL⸣ ARAD-ka [ta-mit up-tar-ri-du] / [lu-ú…

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 P336617.

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/P336617/..
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/P336617/.

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