Position in chronology
SAA 04 250. Fragment of a Query (AGS 159) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that a clean or unclean person has touched the sacrificial sheep or] blocked [the way of the sacrific]ial sheep. (2) [Disregard that an unclean man or woman has come near the place of the extispicy] and made it unclean. (r 1) [Disregard that an] unclean person has performed extispicy [in this 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 ordina]ry soil[ed garment]. (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/P336120/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[e-zib šá KUG lu-ʾu-ú UDU SISKUR.SISKUR TAG-MEŠ ú—lu a-na IGI SISKUR].⸢SISKUR⸣ GIL-MEŠ / [e-zib šá lu-ʾu-ú lu-ʾu-ú-tu KI MÁŠ DIB-MEŠ]-ma ú-le-ʾu-ú / [e-zib šá i-na KI an-ni-i lu-ʾu]-⸢ú⸣ 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 pu-ut UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né]-⸢e⸣-[šú] ⸢ar⸣-šá-a-[ti 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 P336120.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336120). 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/P336120/.
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