Position in chronology
SAA 04 245. Fragment of a Query (PRT 097) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard the (formulation) of today's case], be it good, [be it faulty]. (r 1) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity] for the performance of the extispicy [is deficient or faulty]. (r 2) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sheep is dressed] in his ordinary soiled [garments]. (r 3) [Disregard that I, the haruspex your servant, am dressed in] my ordinary s[oiled garments ...] (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/P237646/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá di-in UD NE-i] GIM DÙG-ab ⸢GIM⸣ [ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-ka] šá ana MÁŠ MÁŠ-[ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib šá TAG-it SAG.KI UDU.NÍTA TÚG] gi-né-e-šú ár-šá-at [lab-šú] / [e-zib šá a-na-ku DUMU—LÚ.ḪAL ARAD-ka TÚG] gi-né-e-a ⸢ár⸣-[šá-at lab-šá-ku]
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 P237646.
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/P237646/..
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/P237646/.
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