Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 195. Fragment Similar to No. 192 (PRT 050) [medical]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P236927

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4
High confidence
(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give me] a firm positive answer to what I am asking you! (2) [The lady NN], whose name [is written] in this papyrus, (3) [and ..., whose name] is writ[ten] in this papyrus and placed [before] your great [divinity] (5) [... the 'ha]nd' of god ...[...] (Break) (r 1) [...]... is split. [Be present] in [this ram], (r 2) [...] ... a god or [......] (r 3) place [in it a firm positive answer by the command of] your great [divinity, and may I see (it)]. (r 5) May (this query) go [to] your great [divinity, O Šamaš], great [lord], and may an oracle [be given as an answer]. (r 6) [......] Month Marchesvan (VIII), 22nd day. (r 7) [(Performed) i]n Arbela.

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] / [MÍ.x x x x] šá MU-šá i-na ni-ʾa-a-ra an-na-[a šá-aṭ-ru-ma] / [x x x šá MU-šú] ⸢i⸣-na ni-ʾa-a-ra an-na-a šá-⸢aṭ⸣-[ru-ma] / [i-na IGI DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-ti šá-ak-nu ⸢x⸣+[x x] / [x x x x x x qa]-⸢at⸣ DINGIR qa?-⸢at? x x x⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢ú?⸣ [x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x]+⸢x BAR DU₈ i-na ŠÀ⸣ [x x x x x] / [x x…

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 P236927.

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/P236927/..
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/P236927/.

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