Position in chronology
SAA 04 120. Fragment of a Military Query (PRT 063) [military and political]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...... of] Assyria? (2) [Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can hear, hear it? Does your gr]eat [divinity] know it? (3) [Disregard what (happens) after] my stip[ulated term]. (4) [Disregard that they th]ink [it over, turn back, and le]ave it. (5) [Disregard that an unclean person] has performed extispicy [in this place]. (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and made it un]clean. (r 2) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or fa]ulty. (r 3)…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x x x x] ⸢KUR⸣—AN.ŠÁR / [x x x IGI-ru IGI-ra ŠE-ú ŠE-e DINGIR-ut-ka GAL]-ti ZU-e / [e-zib šá a-na EGIR a-dan]-ni-ia / [e-zib šá it-ti ŠÀ-bi-šú-un i-dab]-⸢bu?⸣-bu-ú / [ú-tar-ru-ú-ma ú]-⸢maš⸣-šá-ru / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu-ú] MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB.DIB-ma ú-le-ʾu]-ú / [e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu]-ú / [e-zib…
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 P240352.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P240352). 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/P240352/.
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