Position in chronology
SAA 04 228. Fragment of a Query (AGS 090) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [......] The 'path' is [...] on the right [...] (r 2) [...... o]ver the 'increment.' The coils of the colon [...] (r 3) [...... The heart of the r]am is normal.Šu[mâ (and) NN] (r 4) [......; f]irst [Elul/Adar], 22nd day, [eponym year of NN]. (r 5) May (this query) go [to your great divinity, O Šamaš], great lord, and [may an oracle be given as an answer].
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/P237203/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x x x]-⸢tum⸣ GÍR ⸢15⸣ [x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x x] ⸢UGU⸣ MÁŠ ŠÀ.NIGIN [x x x x x] / [x x x x x x x ŠÀ UDU].NÍTA šá-lim mšu-[ma-a x x x] / [x x x x x x ITI.x] ⸢maḫ*⸣-ru-ú UD 22-[KÁM x x x x x] / [UGU DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti dUTU] ⸢EN⸣ GAL-ú DU-ik-⸢ma⸣ [KIN li-tap-pal]
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 P237203.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237203). 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/P237203/.
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