Position in chronology
SAA 04 026. Esarhaddon and Hubuškia (AGS 039) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... Is it decreed and confirmed in a favorable case], by the command of your [great] divinity, [Šamaš, great lord? Will he who can s]ee, see it? Will he who can he[ar], he[ar it]? (3) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good], be it faulty, (and that) the day is overcast and it is ra[ining]. (4) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, o]r bloc[ked] the way of the sacrificial sheep. (5) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman] has come near the place of the extispicy and made it unclean. (6) [Disregard that an…
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/P237212/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x ina SILIM-tim] ina KA DINGIR-⸢ti⸣-ka [GAL-ti] / [dUTU EN GAL-ú qa-bi-i ku-un-i] ⸢IGI⸣-ra IGI-mar ⸢ŠE⸣-[ú] ⸢ŠE⸣-[e] / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mi an-ni-i GIM DÙG.GA] GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú UD ŠÚ-⸢pu A.AN ŠUR⸣-[nun] / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú]—lu-ú a-na IGI SISKUR.SISKUR GIL-⸢MEŠ⸣-[ku] / [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-i lu]-ʾi-i…
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 P237212.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237212). 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/P237212/.
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