Position in chronology
SAA 04 122. Fragment of a Military Query (AGS 022) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (2) [......] Will he place [......]? (3) [...] Will it be delivered [to him]? (4) [Does your great divinity know it? Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can he]ar, hear it? (5) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good, be it fa]ulty. (6) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, o]r blocked [the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (7) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and made it un]clean. (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean person has performed extisp]icy [in this place].…
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/P238987/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x x x] tab [x x x] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x]-an-di i-šak-⸢ka-a⸣-[na] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x] i-man-ni-i / [DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti ZU-e a-mi-ru im-ma-a-ra še]-mu-ú i-šem-mé-e / [e-zib šá di-in UD NE-i GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa]-ṭu-ú / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú UDU.NÍTA TAG-MEŠ ú—lu 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…
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 P238987.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238987). 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/P238987/.
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