SAA 04 117. Fragment of a Military Query (AGS 082) [military and political]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P336068

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (2) [or a str]ong [enemy ...] agai[nst ...] (Break) (r 1) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sheep is dressed in his ordinary soiled garmen]ts. (r 2) [Disregard that the orac]ular query has be[come jumbled in the mouth of the haruspex, your servant].[Let them be taken out and put aside]! (r 3) [I as]k you, [Šamaš, great lord, (r 4) whether ...] or [...... or a str]ong enemy will [att]ack [NN and the army of Esarhaddon, ki]ng of Assyria, (r 7) [kill (and) plunder them, (and whether) Esar]haddon, [king of Assyria, will be troubled and angry]. (Rest destroyed)

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

Transliteration

[x x x x x x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ [x x x x x x] / [x x x x x x lu-ú LÚ.KÚR dan]-ni a-na [UGU x x x x x] / [e-zib šá TAG-it pu-ut UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né-e-šú ár-šá-a]-ti [lab-šú] / [e-zib šá i-na KA DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka ta]-mit up-[tar-ri-du] / [lu-ú ZI-MEŠ lu-ú BAR-MEŠ a]-⸢šal⸣-ka d[UTU EN GAL-ú] / [ki-i x x x x x x x x]-si lu-ú [x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x lu-ú LÚ.KÚR] ⸢dan⸣-ni a-na ⸢UGU⸣ [x x x x] /…

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 P336068.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336068). 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/P336068/.

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