Position in chronology
SAA 04 099. Fragment Similar to No. 96 (PRT 035) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) will they do [battle ......]? (3) [Is it decreed and confirm]ed [in a favorable case, b]y the command of your great divinity, [Šamaš, great lord]? (5) [Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear, hea]r it? (6) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good, be it fa]ulty. (7) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or] blocked [the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (8) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and made it] unclean. (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean person has…
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/P336340/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣-ni [x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] ip-pu-šú-ú / [x x x x x x i-na SILIM-tim i]-⸢na⸣ KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-[ti] / [dUTU EN GAL-ú qa-bi-i ku-un]-i / [IGI-ru IGI-ra ŠE.GA-ú ŠE].⸢GA⸣-e / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mu NE-i GIM DÙG.GA GIM ḫa]-⸢ṭu⸣-ú / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú UDU SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu a-na IGI SISKUR.SISKUR] GIL-MEŠ / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-ti KI…
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 P336340.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336340). 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/P336340/.
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