Position in chronology
SAA 04 193. Fragment Similar to No. 192 (PRT 042) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give me] a firm positive answer [to what I am asking yo]u! (2) [The lady NN, who is placed before] your gre[at divinity, who is now il]l, [and on whom] the 'hand' of [Nanaya is being placed in extispicy], (whom) your great divinity [knows] — (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 3) [May (this query) go to your] great [divinity], O Šamaš, [great] lord, [and may an oracle be] given as an answer.
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/P239144/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu]-⸢ka⸣ an-na GI.⸢NA⸣ [a-pal-an-ni] / [MÍ.x x x x šá i-na IGI] ⸢DINGIR⸣-ti-ka ⸢GAL⸣-[ti šak-na-tu] / [šá i-na-an-na mar-ṣa]-⸢tu⸣-ma ŠU.2 d[na-na-a] / [i-na MÁŠ iš-šak-na-áš-ši] ⸢DINGIR-ut-ka GAL⸣-[ti ZU-u] / [x x šá KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL]-ti šuk-nam-[ma lu-mur] / [UGU DINGIR-ti-ka] ⸢GAL⸣-ti dUTU ⸢EN⸣ [GAL-ú lil-lik-ma] / [UR₅.ÚŠ li]-⸢tap-pal⸣
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 P239144.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239144). 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/P239144/.
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.