Position in chronology
SAA 04 176. Fragment Similar to No. 156 (PRT 048) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Šam[aš, great lord, give me a firm positive answer to what I am asking you]! (2) Will the man [whose name is written in this papyrus and placed] before [your great divinity ...] (4) [......] to Esarh[addon, king of Assyria, ...] (5) concer[ning ......] (Break) (r 1) [Be present] in this ram, place (in it) [a firm positive answer, favorable designs], favorable, [propitious] omens [by the oracular command of your great divinity], and may I see (them). (r 3) [May (this query) go to your great divinity], O Šamaš, great lord, [and may an oracle be given as an answer].
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/P336345/
Why it matters
Transliteration
d⸢UTU⸣ [EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-an-ni] / LÚ ⸢ša⸣ [MU-šú i-na ni-ʾa-ri an-ni-e šá-aṭ-ru-ma] / i-na ma-⸢ḫar⸣ [DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti GAR-un] / a-na mdaš-šur—⸢ŠEŠ⸣—[SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur x x x x x x] / i-na ⸢UGU⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [i]-⸢na⸣ ŠÀ UDU.⸢NÍTA⸣ [NE-i GUB-za-am-ma an-na GI.NA GIŠ.ḪUR-MEŠ SILIM-MEŠ] / UZU-MEŠ ta-mit SIG₅-MEŠ [SILIM-MEŠ šá SILIM-tim šá KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti] / šuk-nam-ma lu-mur [UGU DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti] / dUTU EN GAL-ú [lil-lik-ma KIN li-tap-pal]
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 P336345.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P336345/..
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/P336345/.
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