Position in chronology
SAA 04 313. Fragment of a Query Concerning a Rumour [appointment]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) ...... In the ankle there is a hole whose inside is white. (3) In the base of the 'station' a filament lies crosswise. (4) The 'well-being' is overturned and faces the gall bladder. (5) The gall bladder is flattened. Above the 'increment' there is a 'weapon'-mark which faces the 'yoke.' (7) There are 4 unfavorable omens. (r 1) The man whose name is written in this oblong tablet and placed before your great divinity, (and) concerning whom it was [s]aid to Assurbanipal, king of [Assyria], your servant: (r 7) "[......] Aššur-nemel-[...]" (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/P237756/
Why it matters
Transliteration
du ri pad? 150 BE ina kur-sin-ni? / BÙR ŠUB-di ŠÀ-šú-nu BABBAR / BE ina SUḪUŠ NA GU pa-rik / BE SILIM BAL-ma ZÉ IGI / BE ZÉ šub-bat ina UGU MÁŠ / GIŠ.TUKUL GAR-ma ni-ri IGI / (blank) 04 TAG-MEŠ ina ŠÀ-bi / LÚ šá MU-šú ina IM.GÍD-ṭu / an-na-a šaṭ-ru-ú-ma / ina IGI DINGIR-ti-ka ⸢GAL⸣-ti GAR / šá a-na mAN.ŠÁR—DÙ—A LUGAL KUR—aš-[šur] / ARAD-ka a-na UGU LÚ UR₅-[tú] / qa-bu-ú um-ma ḫa-[x x x x] / [ina] ⸢IGI?⸣ mAN.ŠÁR—Á.TUK [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 P237756.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P237756). 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/P237756/.
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.