Position in chronology
SAA 04 249. Fragment of a Query [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (4) [Disreg]ard the (formulation) of today's case, [be it good, be it faulty]. (r 1) [Disregard that] an unclean man or woma[n has come near the place of the extispicy and made it unclean]. (r 2) [Disregard that] the ram (offered) to [your] divinity [for the performance of the extispicy is deficient or faulty]. (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/P239471/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x x x x] ⸢x⸣ [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x x]-ma i-[x x x x x x x x x x x] / [x x x] (blank) [x x x x x x x x x x x] / [e]-⸢zib⸣ šá di-in UD NE-[i GIM DÙG-ab GIM ḫa-ṭu-ú] / [e-zib] šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-[ʾu-ú-tú KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú] / [e-zib šá] UDU.NÍTA DINGIR-ti-[ka šá a-na MÁŠ MÁŠ-ú LAL-ú ḫa-ṭu-ú]
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 P239471.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239471). 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/P239471/.
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