Position in chronology
SAA 04 277. Is Assurbanipal Ill with the ‘Hand’ of ...? (AGS 100) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Assurbanipal, king of] Assyria, who is [now ill, and on whom the 'hand' of god ...] is b[eing 'placed'] in extispicy, [(whom) you]r great [divinity knows] — (4) [if he is ill with the 'hand' of god] placed [on him in di]vination, [is it ......] of the land of Akkad? (6) Does your great divinity know it? Is [this] 'ha[nd' of god ...], which is being pla[ced on him] in extispicy, decreed and confirmed [in a favorable case] by the command of yo[ur great] divinity, [Šamaš, great lord? Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear, hear it]? (10) [Disregard the…
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/P336080/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[maš-šur—DÙ—A LUGAL] ⸢KUR⸣—aš-šur šá ⸢i⸣-[na-an-na mar-ṣu-ma] / [ŠU.2 dx x i]-na bi-ri ⸢iš⸣-[šak-kan-áš-šú] / [DINGIR-ut]-⸢ka⸣ GAL-ti [ZU-u ki-i ŠU.2 DINGIR] / [šá i]-⸢na⸣ bi-ri iš-šak-⸢kan⸣-[áš-šú GIG?] / ⸢šá⸣ KUR—ak-ka-de-e [x x x x x] / DINGIR-ut-<ka> GAL-ti ZU-e ⸢ŠU⸣.[2 DINGIR an-nu-ú] / šá i-na bi-ri iš-⸢šak⸣-[kan-áš-šú i-na SILIM-tim] / i-na KA DINGIR-ti-⸢ka⸣ [GAL-ti dUTU EN GAL-ú] /…
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 P336080.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) ? — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336080). 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/P336080/.
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