Position in chronology
SAA 04 220. Fragment of a Query (PRT 033) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...... If] they [g]o [...] (2) [...... will] they go [......]? (3) Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good, be it faulty. (4) [Disregard that a clean or unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or] blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep. (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy] and made it unclean. (r 2) [Disregard that an unclean person has] performed [extispicy in this place]. (r 3) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your great divinity for the performance of the extisp]icy is deficient or…
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/P240416/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x it]-⸢tal⸣-ku [x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢il⸣-la-⸢ku⸣ [x x x x] / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mu an-ni-i GIM DÙG.GA GIM ḫa]-ṭu-[ú] / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú UDU TAG-MEŠ ú—lu a-na] ⸢pa⸣-an SISKUR.SISKUR GIL-MEŠ / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ]-⸢ma⸣ ú-le-ʾu-ú / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ ib]-ru-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 SAG.KI UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né-šú ár-šat lab-šú ku-un qa-ti BAL]-u uš-[pe-lu]
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 P240416.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240416). 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/P240416/.
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