Position in chronology
SAA 04 239. Fragment of a Query (PRT 066) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard] that [an unclean person has performed extispicy] in [this] place. (2) Disregard that [an unclean man or woman has come near] the place of the extispicy [and made it unclean]. (3) Disregard that the ram (offered) to [your divinity for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (4) [Disregard that] he who touches [the forehead of the sheep is dressed in his ordinary soiled garments, has eaten, drunk, or anointed himself with any]thing unclean, has touched [the (libation) beer, the maṣhatu flour, the water, the pot, and the fi]re [......] (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/P237355/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib] ⸢šá⸣ ina KI [an-ni-i lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú] / ⸢e⸣-zib šá KI MÁŠ [lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu DIB-MEŠ-ma ú-le-ʾu-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-e-šú ar-šá-a-ti lab-šú] / [mim]-ma lu-ʾu-[ú KÚ NAG-ú ŠÉŠ-šú mi-iḫ-ḫa ZÍD.MAD.GÁ A-MEŠ ḫaṣ-bu] / [u] ⸢IZI⸣ TAG-[MEŠ x x x x x 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 P237355.
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/P237355/..
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/P237355/.
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