Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 198. Fragment of a Medical Query (AGS 138) [medical]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336106

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...... ill] with the 'hand' [of god ......] (2) [......] said [......] (3) [......] ... [......] (4) [......] taboo [......] (Break) (r 1) [Disregard the (formulation)] of today's case, [be it good, be it faulty]. (r 2) [Disregard that a clean or] unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or [blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (r 3) [Disregard that an uncl]ean man or woman [has come near] the place of the extispicy [and made it unclean]. (r 4) [Disregard that an unclean person has performed extispicy in] this place. (r 5) [Disregard that the ram…

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/P336106/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x x] i-na ŠU ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x]-ú ⸢iq-bu?⸣-ú [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x] ú? qu? [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x] ⸢x⸣ [x x x] ⸢ik-kib⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x] x x [x]-MEŠ ⸢ú*⸣-[x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x x] ⸢x x x x x x⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [e-zib šá di]-in UD-me an-[ni-e GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá KUG…

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 P336106.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336106). 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/P336106/.

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