Position in chronology
SAA 04 342. Fragment of a Report(?) [unclassifiable]
Translation · reference
High confidence(Beginning destroyed) (1) [... the scepter, thr]one and rei[gn of the king will be] long. (3) [If] in the 'pala[ce' of the 'finger'] a long design is drawn straight and the left of the 'finger' is split: Illil will remove from the Ekur the scepter, throne and reign of the king. (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/P238072/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[x x x GIŠ.PA GIŠ].⸢GU⸣.ZA / ù ⸢BALA⸣-[e LUGAL] ⸢GÍD⸣.DA-ik / [BE] i-na É.⸢GAL⸣ [ŠU.SI GIŠ.ḪUR] a-ri-ik-tum / i-šá-riš eṣ-ret-ma 150 ŠU.SI DU₈ / dEN.LÍL GIŠ.PA GIŠ.GU.ZA / ù BALA-ú šá LUGAL / ul-tu É.KUR ú-še-ṣa-a
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 P238072.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P238072). 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/P238072/.
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