Position in chronology
SAA 04 295. Envoys of Assurbanipal Sent to the Cimmerians [military and political]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] flesh [...] (2) [The 'out]side' [rides] upon the 'c[ap']. (3) [The breast]-bone [is split] in the center. (4) [There are ...] unfavorable omens. (5) Unfavorable. (6) [The en]voys of Assurbanipal, king of [Assyria], (7) your [cre]ature, who [wen]t to the Ci[mmerians] and [...] (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/P238997/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x] ⸢x x x⸣ [x x x x] / [x x x] UZU ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [BE SA]-ti UGU U.[SAG MUR U₅] / [BE GAG].⸢ZAG⸣.GA BAR-ma [DU₈] / [x] TAG-MEŠ ina [ŠÀ-bi] / (blank) NU DÙG.⸢GA⸣ [o] / [LÚ.DUMU]-MEŠ—KIN-MEŠ šá mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ—A MAN ⸢KUR⸣—[AN.ŠÁR] / [DÙ-ut] ŠU-ka šá a-na LÚ.⸢gi⸣-[mir-ra-a.a] / [il]-⸢li⸣-ku-ma i-ku-⸢x⸣+[x x x]
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 P238997.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238997). 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/P238997/.
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.