Position in chronology
SAA 04 203. Query Concerning Urda-... [miscellaneous]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give me] a firm positive answer [to what I am asking you]! (2) [From this day, the ...th day of this month], Sivan (III) of [this] ye[ar, to the ...th day of ...], 20 days [and nights, my stipulated term] (Break) (r 1) [......] Urda-[...] (r 2) [......] which is i[n ......]? (r 3) May (this query) go [to your great divinity, O Šamaš, gr]eat [lord, and may an oracle be given as an answer]. (r 4) [... the mid]dle of the 'base of the throne' is split. The middle of the [...] sur[face of the 'finger' ...]. (r 5) [... The breast-bo]ne lies on its back. Of the first [extispicy]. (r 6) [... The breast-bo]ne lies on its back. Of the second [extispicy]. (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/P237559/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu]-⸢ka⸣ an-na GI.⸢NA⸣ [a-pal-an-ni] / [TA UD x šá ITI NE]-i ITI.SIG₄ šá MU.[AN.NA NE-ti] / [EN UD x šá] ⸢ITI.x⸣ 20 UD-⸢MEŠ⸣ [20 MI-MEŠ ši-kin a-dan-ni-ia] / [x x x x x x x x m]ARAD—d[x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ šá ⸢ina?⸣ [x x x x x x] / [UGU DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU EN] ⸢GAL⸣-ú DU-ik-[ma KIN li-tap-pal] / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢MURUB₄⸣ ŠUB—AŠ.TE DU₈ MURUB₄ ⸢EDIN⸣…
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 P237559.
Attribution
Image: BM 099187 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237559). 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/P237559/.
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