Position in chronology
SAA 04 270. Should Chief Eunuch Nabu-šarru-uṣur be Sent to Gambulu? (AGS 152) [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [Šamaš, great lord, give me a firm positive ans]wer [to what I am asking y]ou! (Break) (11) [... Is it decreed and confirmed i]n a favorable case, [by the command of your grea]t [divinity, Šamaš, great lord? Will he who can see, see it? Will he who can he]ar, he[ar it]? (13) Disreg[ard that ...... they experience trouble] (and) hardships [of travel]. (14) Dis[regard that ... Assurbanipal, ki]ng of Assyria [...]. (15) [Disregard the (formulation) of t]o[day's case], b[e it good or faulty]. (16) [Disregard that a clean or an unclean person has touched the sacrif]icial [sheep, or blocked]…
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/P336115/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[dUTU EN GAL-ú šá a-šal-lu]-⸢ka an⸣-[na GI.NA a-pal-an-ni] / a-[x x x x x x x x x x x x i]-na SILIM-⸢ti⸣ [i-na KA DINGIR-ti-ka] / ⸢GAL⸣-[ti dUTU EN GAL-ú qa-bi-i ku-un-i IGI-ru IGI-ra še]-⸢mu⸣-u i-⸢šem⸣-[mé-e] / e-zib [šá x x x x x x x x NÍG.GIG] ma-na-aḫ-⸢ti?⸣ [šá KASKAL.2 IGI-MEŠ] / e-⸢zib⸣ [šá x x x]+⸢x x⸣+[x x mdaš-šur—DÙ—A] ⸢LUGAL⸣ KUR—aš-šur.KI ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [e-zib šá di-in UD-mi an-ni]-e…
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 P336115.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336115). 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/P336115/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The single most important literary discovery of the 19th century. It rewired the understanding of the Bible's literary context and proved that the Mesopotamian flood tradition is older. It is the oldest surviving epic poetry in human history.
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.