Position in chronology
SAA 04 244. Fragment of a Query (PRT 096) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity for the] performance of the extispicy is defic[ient or faulty]. (2) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sheep is dressed] in his ordinary [soiled garm]ents, [has eaten, drunk, or anointed himself with anything unclean, or has touched the (libation) be]er, the maṣhatu flour, the pot, [and the fire]. (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/P237435/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka šá a-na] ⸢MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú ma-ṭu⸣-[ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá TAG-it SAG.KI UDU.NÍTA ṣu-ba]-ti gi-né-e-šú [ár-šá-ti lab-šú] / [mim-ma lu-ʾu-ú KÚ NAG ŠEŠ-šú mi-iḫ]-⸢ḫa?⸣ ZÍD.MAD.GÁ ḫa-aṣ-⸢bu⸣ [IZI TAG-MEŠ]
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 P237435.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P237435/..
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/P237435/.
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