Position in chronology
SAA 04 208. Fragment of an Appointment(?) Query (AGS 137) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......] will he [ma]ke [common cause with his enemy? Does your great divinity know (it)]? (2) Is it [decr]eed and confirmed [in a favorable case, by the command of your great divinity, Šamaš, great lord? Will he] who can see, see [it? Will he who can hear, hear it]? (3) [Disregard that ......] death (may) occur [...]. (4) [Disregard that ......] they (may) experience [... trou]ble and hardships on the journey. (r 1) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good], be it faulty. (r 2) [Disregard that a clean or unclean person has touched the sacrificial…
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/P238998/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x i-šak?]-⸢ka?⸣-a-na [DINGIR-ut-ka GAL-ti ZU-e i-na SILIM-tim] / [i-na KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU EN GAL-ú qa-bi]-i ku-un ⸢IGI-ru IGI⸣-[ra ŠE-ú ŠE-e] / [e-zib šá x x x x x x x x]+⸢x⸣ ÚŠ GÁL!-MEŠ [x x x] / [e-zib šá x x x x x x x x x] ⸢NÍG⸣.GIG ⸢ma⸣-na-aḫ-ti šá KASKAL.2 IGI-MEŠ / [e-zib šá di-in UD-me NE-i GIM DÙG.GA] ⸢GIM⸣ ḫa-ṭu-ú / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu…
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 P238998.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238998). 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/P238998/.
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