Position in chronology
SAA 04 300. Should Assurbanipal Appoint Sin-tabni-uṣur over Ur? (PRT 135) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [......] the angry [god] will recon[cile himself] with the man. (2) [If the left side of the 'cap'] grows a 'finger': [divine] merc[y for the man]. (3) [The breast-bon]e is thick. The coils of the colon are 12 in number. The heart of the ram is [normal]. (4) Favorable. (5) Will [Si]n-tabni-uṣur, [so]n of Nikkal-iddina, be reliable? If [he is ap]pointed [ov]er Ur, will he make common cause [with] Šamaš-šumu-ukin? (Break) (r 1) [Month A]b (V), 11th day, eponym year of [NN]. (r 2) Dannaya, eunuch, r[eporter]. (r 3) [Performed in] Arbela.
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/P336365/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[BE-ma DINGIR] zi-nu-u KI LÚ ⸢SILIM⸣-[im x x x] / [BE 150 U].⸢SAG ŠU⸣.SI DÙ-nu ta-a.a-⸢rat⸣ [DINGIR ana LÚ] / [BE GAG.ZAG].⸢GA⸣ e-bi ŠÀ.NIGIN 12 ŠÀ ⸢UDU.NÍTA⸣ [šá-lim] / [o] (space) DÙG.GA-ab / [md]⸢30⸣—tab-ni—ŠEŠ / ⸢DUMU⸣ mdNIN.GAL—MU / i-šá-lim GIM-ma / [a]-⸢na⸣ UGU ŠEŠ.UNUG.KI / [ip]-⸢pi⸣-qid KA-šú u ŠÀ-šú / [KI md]GIŠ.NU₁₁—MU—GI.⸢NA⸣ / [i-šá]-⸢ka-an⸣ / [x x x] šá ⸢x⸣+[x x x] / [ITI].⸢NE⸣ UD 11-KÁM lim-mu [mx x x] / [m]⸢dan⸣-a LÚ.⸢SAG LÚv⸣.[EN—UMUŠ] / [ina] ⸢URU⸣.arba-ìl [e-tap-šú]
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 P336365.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P336365). 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/P336365/.
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.