Position in chronology
SAA 04 231. Fragment of a Query [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Is it decreed and confirmed in a favorable case, by the com]mand of [your great] divinity, [Šamaš, great lord]? (2) [Does your great divinity] know (it)? Will he who can se[e, see it? Will he who can hear, hear it]? (3) [Disregard that ......]...[......]. (Break) (r 1) [Disregard the (formulation) of] today's [ca]se, b[e it good, be it faulty]. (r 2) [Disregard that a clean or an un]clean person has touc[hed] the sacrificial sheep, [or blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (r 3) [Disregard that an unc]lean 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 pla[ce]. (Rest destroyed)
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/P237081/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[i-na SILIM-tim i-na] ⸢KA⸣ DINGIR-⸢ti⸣-[ka GAL-i dUTU EN GAL-ú] / [qa-bi-i ku-un DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti] ZU-e IGI-⸢ru⸣ [IGI-ra ŠE.GA-ú ŠE.GA-e] / [x x x x x x x] ⸢ti ar?⸣ [x x x x x x x] / [e-zib šá di]-⸢in⸣ UD NE-i ⸢GIM⸣ [DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá KUG lu]-ʾu-ú SISKUR.SISKUR ⸢TAG⸣-[MEŠ ú—lu ana IGI SISKUR.SISKUR GIL-MEŠ] / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu]-⸢ú⸣ lu-ʾu-ú-⸢ti⸣ [KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / [e-zib šá i-na] ⸢KI⸣ NE-i [lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú] / [x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x ti?⸣ [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 P237081.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237081). 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/P237081/.
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