SAA 04 311. Fragment Concerning an Appointment or an Illness [appointment]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P239018

Translation — scholar edition

SAA 4

High confidence

(Beginning destroyed) (1) [...] The 'strength' is over[turned ....] (2) [...] is atrophied. The base of the mid[dle] surface of the 'finger' [...]. (3) [The brea]st-bone is trimmed on the right and on the left. (r 1) There are [... unfavo]rable omens. (r 2) [The man whose name is written in this] tablet and [placed] before your [great] divinity [...] (Rest destroyed)

State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).

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Transliteration

[x x x x x] BE KALAG ⸢BAL?⸣ / [x x x x x] KAR SUḪUŠ EDIN U ⸢MURUB₄⸣ [x x x] / [BE GAG].⸢ZAG⸣.GA 15 u 150 / [o] ka-ṣiṣ / [x] ⸢TAG⸣-MEŠ ina ŠÀ-bi / [LÚ šá MU-šú ina] ni-ib-zi / [an-na-a šaṭ-ru]-ma ina IGI DINGIR-ti-ka / [GAL-ti GAR] ⸢x 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 P239018.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P239018). 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/P239018/.

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