Position in chronology
SAA 04 262. Should Šamaš-šumu-ukin Escort the Statue of Marduk to Babylon? (AGS 149) [cultic]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give m]e a firm [positive answ]er [to what I am asking you]! (2) [Should Šamaš-šumu-ukin, son of Esarhad]don, king of [Assyria, within this year] seize the [han]d of the great lord [Marduk i]n the Inner City, and should he lead [Bel] to Babylon? Is it pleasing to your [great] divinity and to the great lord, Marduk? (7) Is it acceptable to your great divinity and to the great lord Marduk? Does your great divinity know it? [Is it decreed] and confirmed [in] a favorable case, by the command of your great divinity, Šamaš, great lord? Will he who can see, see it? Will he…
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/P238966/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu-ka an]-⸢na⸣ GI.NA a-[pal-an-ni] / [mdGIŠ.NU₁₁—MU—GI.NA DUMU mdaš-šur—ŠEŠ]—⸢SUM⸣-na LUGAL ⸢KUR⸣—[aš-šur.KI] / [i-na ŠÀ MU.AN.NA NE-ti qa]-⸢at⸣ EN GAL-i d[AMAR.UTU] / [i]-⸢na⸣ ŠÀ-bi—URU.KI li-iṣ-bat-ma a-na i-na pa-⸢an⸣ [dEN] / a-na KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI lil-lik UGU DINGIR-ti-ka [GAL-ti] / ù UGU dEN GAL-i dAMAR.UTU DÙG.GA / pa-an DINGIR-ti-ka GAL-ti ù pa-an dEN GAL-i /…
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 P238966.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238966). 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/P238966/.
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