Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 335. Fragment Similar to No. 333 (PRT 125) [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P237371

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (2) [In the rig]ht side of the gall bladder there is a hole. Above [......]. (3) [The 'paths'] are 2, the lower one [...] toward [...]. (4) [Thir]d extispicy. (5) [Bel-ušall]im. Month Iyyar (II), 4th day, [eponym year of NN]. (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/P237371/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x x x] ⸢ŠÀ UDU*⸣ [x x x x] / [BE ina] ⸢15?⸣ ZÉ BÙR ŠUB ina UGU [x x x x] / [BE GÍR] 02-ma KI.TA-ú ana [x x x x] / [o šá]-lul-[ti o?] / [x x]-im ITI.GUD UD ⸢04?⸣-[KÁM lim-mu]

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 P237371.

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/P237371/..
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/P237371/.

Related tablets

Related sources