Position in chronology
SAA 04 320. Will a Written Plan Succeed? (EANE 203) [miscellaneous]
Translation — scholar edition
SAA 4(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... lo]wer [...] 'weapon'-mark [......]. (2) [In the] middle [sur]face of the 'finger' there is a fissure. [......] (3) [The 'station' and the 'pa]th' are present. If the 'well-being' is overturned [and faces the gall bladder]: strife; dispersal of [the man's] household. (5) [The fr]ont of the atrophied part is effaced. If the gall bladder [has a swelling up]ward in its narrow part: the orders of the ruler will be disa[greeable] to his officials. (7) If the 'finger' is severed: downfall of the army. (8) If on the left of the 'finger' in (its) wide part there is a…
State Archives of Assyria, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Transliteration
[x x x AN].⸢TA*⸣-ú* GIŠ.TUKUL ⸢x⸣+[x x x x] / [BE ina] ⸢EDIN⸣ U MURUB₄ DU₈ GAR [x x x x] / [BE NA u] GÍR GAR-MEŠ SILIM BAL-ma ⸢ZÉ*⸣ [IGI] / ⸢IZI*⸣.GAR BIR-aḫ É [LÚ] / [BE] ⸢IGI⸣ KAR-ti pa-šiṭ ZÉ ina SIG-šá e-[liš dak-šat] / šá NUN UGU GAL-MEŠ-šú INIM-MEŠ-šú GIG-⸢MEŠ⸣-[ṣa] / BE ŠU.SI kàṣ-ṣa-at ŠUB-ti ERIM-ni / BE ina DAGAL 150 U GÌR RA-at / GÌR LÚ.GUB.BA šá KUR KÚR / BE ina UGU MÁŠ KAM-tum ŠUB-át…
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 P336162.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P336162). 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/P336162/.
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