Position in chronology
SAA 04 315. Should Assurbanipal Perform Sacrifices before ...? [cultic]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [...... It is favorable in both a favora]ble and unfavor[able case. ...] (r 2) Should [Assurbani]pal, king of Assyria, [your] creature, [at the beginn]ing of month Adar of [this] ye[ar] perform [...] sacrifices be[fore god ...], his [...]? (r 5) [Does your great] divinity [know it? Is it pleasing] to the great lord, ...? Is it acce[pt]able [to the great lord, ...?] (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/P237128/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x ina SILIM?]-⸢tim?⸣ u NU ⸢SILIM⸣-[tim SILIM-át x x x] / [i-na? e?]-⸢reb⸣ ITI.ŠE šá MU.⸢AN⸣.[NA NE-ti] / [mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ]—A MAN KUR—aš-šur DÙ-ut ŠU.[2-ka] / [x x x x] UDU.SISKUR.SISKUR-MEŠ ina ⸢IGI⸣ [dx] / [x x x x]-šú li-pu-uš DINGIR-⸢ut⸣-[ka] / [GAL-ti ZU-e] ⸢UGU⸣ EN GAL dx [DÙG.GA-i] / [IGI EN GAL dx] ⸢ma-ḫi⸣-[i]-⸢ri 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 P237128.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237128). 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/P237128/.
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