Position in chronology
SAA 04 016. NN Sent to Que (AGS 062+) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Šamaš, great lord, [give me a firm positive answer] to what I am ask[ing you]! (2) [Fr]om this day, the 26th day o[f this month, ... of this year, to the ...th day] of Tishri (VII) o[f thi]s [year], my [stipulated te]rm — (4) [within th]is [stipulated te]rm, [should Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, strive and plan, and send ... where the ...]eans are located? (6) [Is it pleasing to your great divinity? If he, having planned], sends, [will either NN ... and his army, or ...]šattû and his army, [or NN ... and his army, or ...]ni, son of Kandâ and his army, [or the ...ians, ... or the Tabale]ans…
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/P238744/
Why it matters
Transliteration
dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-⸢lu⸣-[ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-an]-⸢ni⸣ / ⸢TA⸣ UD-mu an-ni-i UD 26-KÁM šá ⸢ITI⸣ [an-ni-i ITI.x šá MU.AN.NA an-ni]-⸢ti⸣ / [EN UD x-KAM] šá ITI.DU₆ ⸢šá⸣ [MU.AN.NA an-ni-ti ši-kin a-dan]-ni-ia / [ina ši-kin a-dan]-ni šu-[a-tu mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur li-iṣ-rim lik-pid]-ma / [x x x x x] ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x]-a.a áš-bu / [liš-pur UGU DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti DÙG-ab GIM…
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 P238744.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238744). 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/P238744/.
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.