Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 251. Fragment of a Query (AGS 163) [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P239002

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4
High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) Disregard that [an unclean person has performed extispicy] in this place. (r 2) Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity [for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (r 3) Disregard that he who touches the forehead [of the sheep is dressed in his ordinary soiled garments], has eaten, [drunk, or anointed himself] with anything unclean, [(or) has altered or changed the proceedings]. (r 5) Disregard that [the oracle query has become jumbled] in the mouth of the haruspex, [your servant].[Let them be] taken out and put [aside]! (r 6) [I ask you, Šamaš, great lord, whether ...] (Rest destroyed)

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[e]-zib šá i-na KI ⸢an⸣-[ni-i lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ MÁŠ-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 ár-šá-a-ti lab-šú] / mim-ma lu-ʾu-ú KÚ-lu [NAG-ú ŠÉŠ-šú ku-un ŠU.2 BAL-ú uš-pe-lu] / e-zib šá i-na KA DUMU—⸢LÚ⸣.[ḪAL ARAD-ka ta-mit ip-tar-ri-du] / [lu-ú] ⸢ZI⸣-MEŠ ⸢lu-ú⸣ [BAR-MEŠ a-šal-ka dUTU EN GAL-ú ki-i 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 P239002.

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/P239002/..
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/P239002/.

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