Position in chronology
SAA 04 019. Will the King of Urartu ...? (AGS 049) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) Disregard that an unclean man or w[oman has come near the place of the extispicy and made it unclean]. (r 2) Disregard that an [unclean person has performed extispicy] in this place. (r 3) [Disreg]ard that the ram (offered) to your divinity [for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (r 4) [Disregard] that he who touches the forehead of the sheep [is dressed in his ordinary soiled garments]. (r 5) [Disregard that] I, the haruspex, [your] ser[vant, have jumbled the oracle query in my mouth], (or) changed or alte[red the proc]eedings.[Let them be…
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/P336055/
Why it matters
Transliteration
e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú ⸢lu⸣-[ʾu-ú-tú KI MÁŠ DIB.DIB-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / ⸢e⸣-zib šá i-na KI an-⸢ni⸣-[e lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú x x x x] / [e]-⸢zib⸣ šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-⸢ka⸣ [šá ana MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib] šá TAG-it SAG.KI UDU.NÍTA [TÚG gi-né-e-šú ár-šá-ti lab-šu] / [e-zib šá] a-na-ku DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ⸢ARAD⸣-[ka ta-mit ina KA-ia up-tar-ri-du] / [ku-un] ⸢ŠU⸣.2 BAL-ú uš-[pe-lu lu-ú ZI-MEŠ-ḫa lu-ú bé-e-ra] /…
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 P336055.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336055). 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/P336055/.
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