Position in chronology
SAA 04 247. Fragment of a Query [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come] near [the place of the extispicy] and made it unclean. (r 1) [Disregard that] the extispicy is being performed [in this uncl]ean place. (r 2) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity for the performance of the extispicy] is deficient or faulty. (r 3) [Disregard that he who touches the forehead of the sheep is dressed in] his ordinary soiled [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/P336625/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB]-MEŠ-qu-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-e lu-ʾe]-e MÁŠ MÁŠ-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 ar-šat [lab-šú]
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 P336625.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336625). 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/P336625/.
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