Position in chronology
SAA 04 312. Fragment of a Medical Query [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) The top of the left surface of [the 'finger'] drags towards the area of the 'finger.' [...] (3) The 'outside' [rides upon the 'cap.'] (4) The breast-bone [...] (5) [There are] 5 unfavorable omens. (r 1) The patient whose name is written [in] this [... and placed] before your great divinity, (r 4) (and) the nature of whose illness, slight or grave, [your great divinity knows] — (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/P238336/
Why it matters
Transliteration
BE SAG EDIN ⸢150⸣ [ŠU.SI] / ana KUR U im-šur [x x x x] / [BE] SA-ti ⸢UGU⸣ [U.SAG U₅] / ⸢BE⸣ GAG.ZAG.GA [x x x x] / 05 TAG-⸢MEŠ⸣ [ina ŠÀ-bi] / ⸢mar⸣-ṣu šá MU-⸢šú⸣ [ina x x] / an-na-a šaṭ-ru-ma [o] / ina IGI DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-⸢ti⸣ [GAR] / šá ši-kin GIG-šú i-[ṣu (ù)] / ⸢ma⸣-aʾ-⸢du-ma DINGIR⸣-[ut-ka]
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 P238336.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238336). 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/P238336/.
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