Position in chronology
SAA 04 225. Fragment of a Query (AGS 148) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... Is it decreed and confirmed in a favorable ca]se, [by the command of your great divinity], Šamaš, great lord? [Will he who can see, see it]? Will he who can hear, hear it? (4) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case, be it good], be it faulty. (5) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or] blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep. (6) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and] made it unclean. (r 1) [Disregard that an unclean person has perform]ed [extispicy in this place].…
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/P238993/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x x x x x x x ina SILIM]-⸢tim⸣ / [ina KA DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti d]UTU EN GAL-ú / [qa-bi-i ku-un-i a-mi-ru IGI]-⸢mar⸣ še-mu-ú ŠE.GA-e / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mu an-ni-i ki-i DÙG.GA] ki-i ḫa-ṭu-ú / [e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú UDU SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu] ana IGI SISKUR.SISKUR GIL / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tú KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ] ú-le-ʾu-ú / [e-zib šá ina KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu-ú MÁŠ MÁŠ]-ú / [e-zib 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 P238993.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238993). 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/P238993/.
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