Position in chronology
SAA 04 060. Should Esarhaddon Send his Army against Kaštaritu? (PRT 006) [military and political]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give me a f]irm positive answ[er to what I am asking you]! (2) [From the ...th day of this month], Shebat (XI) of [this year, to the ...th day of Nisan (I) of the] coming [year], 40 days [and nights, my stipulated term] — (4) [within this stipulated term], should [Esarhaddon, k]ing of Assyria, s[trive and plan, and send NN with an army, as he wishes, ag]ainst Kaštari[tu, city lord of Karkaššî]? (6) [If he sends him and he goes, is it pleasing] to [your great] divinity? (Break) (r 1) May (this query) go [to your great divinity, O Šamaš, gre]at [lord, and may an oracle be given as an answer].
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka] ⸢an⸣-na GI.⸢NA⸣ [a-pal-an-ni] / [TA UD x-KÁM šá ITI NE]-⸢i⸣ ITI.ZÍZ.ÀM šá [MU.AN.NA NE-ti EN UD x-KÁM] / [šá ITI.BARAG šá MU.AN.NA e]-rib-tu 40 UD-MEŠ [40 MI-MEŠ ši-kin RI-ia] / [ina ši-kin RI UR₅-tú mAN.ŠÁR—ŠEŠ—SUM-na] ⸢LUGAL⸣ KUR—AN.ŠÁR li-⸢iṣ⸣-[rim lik-pid-ma x x x x] / [a-di e-mu-qí mál ŠÀ-šú ub-lu i-na] ⸢UGU⸣ mkaš-ta-ri-[ti EN—URU šá URU.kar—kaš-ši-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 P237027.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P237027). 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/P237027/.
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