Position in chronology
SAA 04 248. Fragment of a Query (PRT 062) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard the (formulation) of the prayer for today's] case, [be it good, be it faulty]. (2) [Disregard that the] ram (offered) to your divinity [for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (3) [Disregard that he who touches] the forehead of the sheep [is dressed in] his ordinary soiled garments. (r 1) [Disregard that I, the haruspex] your servant, [am dressed in] [my] ordinary [soiled] garments, [have] eaten, drunk, [or anointed myself with anything unclean, or changed or altered the proceedings]. (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/P240378/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá ik-rib] di-nim [UD NE-i GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá UDU].⸢NÍTA⸣ DINGIR-ti-ka šá [ana MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá TAG-it] ⸢pu⸣-ut UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né-e-šú ár-[šá-ti lab-šú] / [e-zib šá a-na-ku DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL] ARAD-ka TÚG gi-né-e-[a ár-šá-ti lab-šá-ku] / [mim-ma lu-ʾu-ú a]-ku-lu NAG-⸢ú⸣ [ŠÉŠ-šú ku-un ŠU.2 BAL-ú 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 P240378.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P240378). 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/P240378/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.