Position in chronology
SAA 04 251. Fragment of a Query (AGS 163) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (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 ordinary soiled garments], has eaten, [drunk, or anointed himself] with anything unclean, [(or) has altered or changed the proceedings]. (r 5) Disregard that [the oracle query has become jumbled] in the mouth of the haruspex, [your servant].[Let them be] taken out and put [aside]! (r 6) [I ask you, Šamaš, great lord, whether ...] (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/P239002/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[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 SAG.KI [UDU.NÍTA TÚG gi-né-e-šú ár-šá-a-ti lab-šú] / mim-ma lu-ʾu-ú KÚ-lu [NAG-ú ŠÉŠ-šú ku-un ŠU.2 BAL-ú uš-pe-lu] / e-zib šá i-na KA DUMU—⸢LÚ⸣.[ḪAL ARAD-ka ta-mit ip-tar-ri-du] / [lu-ú] ⸢ZI⸣-MEŠ ⸢lu-ú⸣ [BAR-MEŠ a-šal-ka dUTU EN GAL-ú ki-i x x]
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 P239002.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P239002). 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/P239002/.
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