Position in chronology
SAA 04 302. Should Sin-tabni-uṣur be Appointed over the Sealand? (CT 53 175) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Since] they have been [sending] messages to Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, saying: "Should he appoint Sin-šarra-uṣur son of Nikkal-iddina over us, the Puqudu and the Sealand will switch their allegiance to Assyria and become your subjects" — (5) are these true and sincere words? If Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, appoints Sin-šarra-[uṣur son] of Nikkal-iddina over them, [will he ...] about the [... of] Assurbanipal, king of Assyria, (9) [and ...] Assyria [......]?
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/P313590/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[ša] ši-pir-a-ti ina UGU maš-šur—DÙ—A MAN KUR—aš / [KIN]-ú-ni-ni um-ma md30—MAN—PAB A mdNIN.GAL—SUM-na / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣-ḫi-ni lip-qid-ma IGI šá LÚ.mpu-qud / [šá] ⸢KUR⸣—ti-amat ina KUR—aš-šur.KI liš-šuk-na ARAD-ka DÙ-uš / ⸢dib⸣-bé-e GI.NA-MEŠ SILIM-MEŠ šú-nu ki-ma md30—MAN—[PAB] / [A] mdNIN.GAL—SUM-na maš-šur—DÙ—A MAN KUR—aš / [ina] ⸢UGU⸣-[ḫi-šú]-nu is-sa-ak-⸢nu ina UGU ba-li⸣-[x (x)] / [x x x x x m]aš-šur—DÙ—A MAN ⸢KUR—aš⸣ [x x x] / [x x x] KUR—aš ⸢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 P313590.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P313590). 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/P313590/.
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.