SAA 04 323. Fragment Concerning an Extispicy in Year 652 (PRT 104) [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P238945

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (3) [...... In] the right side of the 'finger' [there is] a 'wea[pon'-mark]. (4) [......] facing [......]. (5) [In the top] of the left surface of the 'finger' there is a 'fo[ot'-mark]. (6) [......] The 'increment' is normal. (7) [The 'ca]p' rides upon the 'outside.' (8) [The left side of the 'cap'] grows a 'weapon'-mark. (9) [The coils of the co]lon are 14 in number. The heart of the ram is normal. (10) The left ['se]at' of the 'path' is present. (11) [...] it faces [......]. (Break) (r 2) [Month ..., ...th day, eponym year of Aššur-du]ru-uṣu[r] (652) . [......] (r 3) [... Marduk]-šumu-uṣu[r ......] (Rest destroyed)

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[x x]-⸢iḫ⸣ ŠÀ [x x x x x] / [x x x] 15 U GIŠ.[TUKUL x x x x] / [x x x] IGI? ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x] / [BE ina SAG] EDIN 150 U ⸢GÌR⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ BE MÁŠ šá-lim [x x x x] / [BE U].⸢SAG⸣ UGU SA-ti U₅ [x x x] / [x x x] GIŠ.TUKUL DÙ-nu [x x] / [BE ŠÀ].⸢NIGIN⸣ 14 ŠÀ UDU.NÍTA šá-lim / [BE šu]-bat 150 GÍR GAR-át [x x x x] / [x x x]+⸢x⸣ IGI ⸢ti?⸣ [x x x x] / [ITI.x UD x-KÁM lim-mu mdaš-šur]—⸢BÀD—ŠEŠ⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x mdAMAR.UTU]—MU—⸢ŠEŠ⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x x x]-⸢ú⸣ ub [x x x x x] / [x x x x x x]-me [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 P238945.

Attribution

Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238945/..
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/P238945/.

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