Position in chronology
SAA 04 305. Should Assurbanipal Appoint Šarru-kenu to an Office? (PRT 124) [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... the mid]dle [...]. (2) [The breast]-bone is thick [...]. (3) The heart of the ram is norma[l]. (4) The 'well-being' is destroyed. In the left side of the gall bladder a 'foot'-mark is [...] toward its front. (5) The lower part is elevated. (6) The 'outside' rides upon the 'cap.' (7) The 'ca[vit]y' of the right lung is split. (8) The coils of the colon are 15 in number. There are 6 unfavorable omens. (9) [Should Assurbanipal, ki]ng of Assyria, [appoint the man] whose name is written in [this] tablet and placed [before] your great [divini]ty, [to an offi]ce? If 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/P238289/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x] ⸢MURUB₄⸣ [x x x x] / [BE GAG].⸢ZAG⸣.GA e-bi [x x x] / BE ŠÀ UDU.NÍTA SILIM-⸢im⸣ [x x x] / BE SILIM RA-iṣ ina 150 ZÉ GÌR ana IGI-šá ⸢x⸣ / BE KI.TA-tum DU-ik / BE SA-ti UGU U.SAG U₅ / [BE] ⸢SAL.LA⸣ MUR 15 DU₈ / [BE] ⸢ŠÀ⸣.NIGIN 15 06 TAG-MEŠ GAR / [LÚ] šá MU-šú ina ŠÀ IM.ni-ib-zi / [an-na]-a šaṭ-ru-ú-ma / [i-na IGI DINGIR]-⸢ti⸣-ka GAL-ti GAR! / [maš-šur—DÙ—A] ⸢LUGAL⸣ KUR—aš-šur.⸢KI⸣ / [a-na…
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 P238289.
Attribution
Image: Adapted from Ivan Starr, Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria (State Archives of Assyria, 4), 1990. Lemmatised by Mikko Luukko, 2018, as part of the research programme of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair in the Ancient History of the Near and Middle East at LMU Munich (Karen Radner, Humboldt Professorship 2015). The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/saao/P238289/..
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/P238289/.
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