Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 260. Fragment of a Query (AGS 155) [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336117

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) Be present [in this ram, place] (in it) a firm positive answer, [favorable] de[signs, favorable], propitious [omens] by the oracular command [of your great divinity], and may I [see (them)].

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/P336117/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[i-na ŠÀ UDU.NÍTA NE-i] GUB-za-am-ma an-na GI.NA ⸢GIŠ⸣.[ḪUR-MEŠ SILIM-MEŠ] / [UZU-MEŠ ta-mit SIG₅-MEŠ] SILIM-MEŠ šá SILIM-tim šá KA ⸢DINGIR⸣-[ti-ka GAL-ti] / [šuk-nam]-⸢ma⸣ lu-[mur]

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 P336117.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336117). 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/P336117/.

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