Position in chronology
SAA 04 227. Fragment of a Query (AGS 089) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Dis]regard that the days [......]. (r 1) Disregard the (formulation) of [today's] case, [be it good, be it faulty]. (r 2) Disregard that a clean [or an unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep, or blocked the way of the sacrificial sheep]. (r 3) Disregard that an unclean [man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy and made it unclean]. (r 4) Disregard that the ram (offered) [to your divinity for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (r 5) Disregard that [he who touches the forehead of the sheep is dressed in his ordinary soiled…
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/P336072/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e]-zib šá UD-MEŠ ⸢x⸣+[x x x x x x x x x x x x] / [e-zib] ⸢šá⸣ di-⸢in⸣ [UD NE-i GIM DÙG.GA GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / e-zib šá KUG [lu-ʾu-ú SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu ana IGI SISKUR.SISKUR GIL-MEŠ] / e-zib šá ⸢lu⸣-[ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB.DIB-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / e-zib šá ⸢UDU⸣.[NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / e-zib šá [TAG-it SAG.KI UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né-e-šú ár-šá-a-ti lab-šú] / mim-⸢ma⸣…
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 P336072.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336072). 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/P336072/.
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