Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

SAA 04 352. Fragment of a Report [unclassifiable]

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·P237365

Translation · reference

High confidence
(Beginning destroyed) (2) The coils of the colon are 16 in number [...]. (3) The gall bladder is flattened and [...]. (4) The upper and lower parts are equ[al ...]. (5) The 'outside' [rides upon the 'cap.'] (6) The breast-bo[ne ...]. (7) The vertebrae are recessed [...]. (8) There are 6 unfavorable omens in the ex[tispicy]. (9) Unfavo[rable]. (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/P237365/

Why it matters

Transliteration

[x x x]+⸢x⸣-šú [x x x x] / BE ŠÀ.NIGIN 16 [x x x x] / BE ZÉ šub-bat u [x x x x x] / BE AN.TA-ti u KI.⸢TA-ti⸣ šit-⸢qú⸣-[la] / BE SA-ti [UGU U.SAG MUR U₅] / BE GAG.ZAG.[GA x x] / BE KIŠIB-MEŠ LAL-MEŠ [x x] / 06 TAG-MEŠ ina ⸢ŠÀ⸣-[bi] / (blank) ul DÙG.[GA o]

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 P237365.

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/P237365/..
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/P237365/.

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