Position in chronology
SAA 04 341. Fragment of a Report Containing Blessings (CT 54 069+) [unclassifiable]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(1) The ['sta]tion' is long [...]. (2) The 'path' [reaches] its 'seats.' (3) The 'strength' is present. The 'path' on the left of the gall [bladder] (4) and the coils of the colon are 16 in number. In [your] fa[vorab]le ext[ispicy] there are two niphus. (6) If [over] the 'increment' there is a 'weapon'-mark and [it rises] from [right to left: my army will take] the enemy's [bo]oty. (Break) (r 2) Month Elul (VI), 17th day, eponym ye[ar of NN]. (r 3) May Šamaš and Adad, impose [a just] verdict and grant th[is to the ki]ng, my lord! (r 6) May they make you attain your goal and [bestow] eternal happiness and health [upon the ki]ng, my lord!
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
BE ⸢NA⸣ GÍD.DA [x x x x] / BE GÍR DAG-MEŠ-⸢šú⸣ [ka-šid] / BE KALAG GAR GÍR 150 ⸢ZÉ⸣ [x x] / ù ⸢ŠÀ⸣.NIGIN 16 ina UR₅.[ÚŠ-ka] / ⸢SILIM-tim⸣ 02 IZI.GAR GAR-⸢MEŠ⸣ [x] / BE [ina UGU] MÁŠ GIŠ.TUKUL GAR-ma TA [15 ana 150 te-bi] / [ERIM-ni ḫi]-⸢im⸣-ṣa-a-ti KÚR [KÚ] / [x x x x] ban du [x] / [x x x x]+x-ti [x x] / [x x x x] ⸢GUR?⸣ [x x x] / ITI.KIN UD 17-KÁM lim-⸢me⸣ [mx x x x] / dUTU u dIM DI.⸢KUD⸣…
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 P237222.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237222). 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/P237222/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
A surviving administrative record of named people and livestock in the Ur III period. Together with other archives, such accounts reveal the work of managing animals, deliveries and institutional responsibility.
Part of the earliest known body of international diplomatic correspondence. Akkadian, written in cuneiform on clay, was the lingua franca of Late Bronze Age statecraft — used between Egypt, the Hittites, Mitanni, Babylon, Assyria, and the Levantine vassals.