Position in chronology
SAA 04 191. Fragment Similar to No. 190 (AGS 102) [medical]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord], give me a firm positive answer [to what I am as]king you! (2) [Niq'a, mother of Esa]rhaddon, king of Assyria, [who is now ill], and on whom the 'hand' of Nanaya of Uruk is being placed [in extispicy] — (5) will it be placed [for death]? (Break) (r 1) [(I ask you) whether the 'hand' of Nan]aya of [Uruk, which is being placed on he]r [in extispicy, will be pla]ced for death, (and whether) the 'hand' of Nana[ya of Uruk] will be placed on her [in ext]ispicy. (r 5) Be present [in] this [ram], place (in it) a firm positive answer, [favorable designs], favorable, propitious…
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/P238974/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal]-lu-ka an-na GI.NA a-pal-an-[ni] / [MÍ.x x x mAN].⸢ŠÁR⸣—ŠEŠ—SUM-na LUGAL KUR—aš-šur.⸢KI⸣ / [šá i-na-an-na mar-ṣa-tu]-ma qa-ti dna-na-a šá UNUG.KI / [i-na bi-ri iš]-šá-ka-na-áš-ši / [a-na UGU ÚŠ-MEŠ x x] ⸢iš⸣-šá-⸢ka⸣-an / [x x x x x x x x x qa-ti dna]-⸢na⸣-a šá [UNUG.KI] / [šá i-na bi-ri iš-šá-kan-áš]-⸢ši⸣ a-na UGU ÚŠ*-[MEŠ] / [x x x x x iš-šá]-⸢ka⸣-an ŠU.2 dna-na-[a] / [šá…
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 P238974.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238974). 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/P238974/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.