Position in chronology
SAA 04 284. Will the Archers of Assurbanipal Sent to Babylon ...? (EANE 206) [military and political]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(Beginning destroyed) (4) The 'increment' [......]. (5) The upper part is mov[able ......]. (6) If the breast-bone [is perforated] in its 'cavity': [defection]. (7) If the coils of the colon are turned (and) [their number] is 16: the gods of my army will [lead it] into strife. (9) Third (extispicy). There are 6 unfavorable omens. (r 1) If the archers whom Assurbanipal, king [of Assyria], [has sent] against [Šamaš-šumu-ukin] to Babylon, (r 5) from the 20th [of the month ......] (r 6) to the 2[0th of the month ......] (r 7) of [this] ye[ar ......] (Rest destroyed)
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Transliteration
⸢BE⸣ [x x x x x x x x] / BE [x x x x x x x x] / BE [x x x x x x x x] / BE MÁŠ [x x x x x x x] / BE AN.TA ⸢DU⸣-[ik x x x x x x] / BE GAG.ZAG.GA ina SAL.⸢LA*⸣-[šú GAM-iš ZI.GA] / BE ŠÀ.NIGIN 150 GUR-MEŠ 16 [ŠID-MEŠ-šú-nu] / ERIM-ni DINGIR-MEŠ-šá ina IZI.GAR-[MEŠ UŠ-MEŠ-ši] / 03-tum 06 TAG-⸢MEŠ⸣ [GAR] / ki-i LÚ.ERIM-MEŠ LÚ.GIŠ*.[BAN-MEŠ] / šá maš-šur—DÙ—A LUGAL [KUR—aš-šur.KI] / a-na UGU…
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 P336163.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336163). 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/P336163/.
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