Position in chronology
SAA 04 167. Fragment Similar to No. 156 (PRT 052) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean] person [has performed] extispicy [in this place]. (r 2) [Disregard that] the oracle query has become ju[mbled in the mouth of the haruspex, your servant].[Let them be taken out] and put aside! (r 3) [I ask you, Šamaš, great lord, whether, (should) Esar]haddon, king [of Assyria], a[ppoint the man whose name is written] in [this] papyrus [and placed before your great divinity to the position which is] written [in] this [papyrus, ......]. (Rest destroyed)
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/P336347/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu]-⸢ú⸣ MÁŠ [MÁŠ-ú] / [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] / [dUTU EN GAL-ú ki-i LÚ šá MU-šú] i-na ŠÀ ni-a-ri [an-na-a šaṭ-ru-ma] / [i-na IGI DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti GAR-un mdaš-šur]—ŠEŠ—SUM-na ⸢LUGAL⸣ [KUR—aš-šur] / [a-na pi-qit-tu-tu šá i-na ni-a-ra] ⸢an⸣-na-a šaṭ-ru ⸢ip⸣-[taq-du-uš] / [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] šá ⸢x⸣+[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 P336347.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336347). 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/P336347/.
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