Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 259. Fragment of a Query (PRT 087) [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P237684

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (r 1) [Be present in this ram], place (in it) [a firm positive answer, favorable designs, favorable, propitious] omens [by the oracular command of your] great [divinity, and may I see (them)]. (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/P237684/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x] UZU-MEŠ [ta-mit SIG₅-MEŠ SILIM-MEŠ šá SILIM-tim] / [šá KA DINGIR-ti-ka] GAL-ti šuk-⸢nam⸣-[ma lu-mur]

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 P237684.

Attribution

Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P237684/..
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/P237684/.

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