Position in chronology
SAA 04 253. Fragment of a Query (AGS 160) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [Disregard that the ram (offered) to your divinity] for the performance of the extispicy is defic[ient or faulty]. (2) [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 proceed]ings. (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/P336121/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[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-šú ar-šat lab-šú [mim-ma] / [lu-ʾu-ú KÚ NAG-ú ŠÉŠ-šú ku-un qa]-⸢ti⸣ BAL-[ú uš-pe-lu]
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 P336121.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336121). 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/P336121/.
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