ACh Ishtar 21 (P394167)
Divination, Neo-Assyrian, Nineveh · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE
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| Designation | ACh Ishtar 21 |
|---|---|
| ID | P394167 |
| Museum no. | BM — |
| Collection | British Museum, London, UK |
| Language | Akkadian |
| Period | Neo-Assyrian · c. 911 BCE–612 BCE |
| Genre | Divination |
| Find spot | Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) |
| Coordinates | 36.3582, 43.1621 |
English translation
By Virolleaud, Charles · Via Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC)
| Line | English |
|---|---|
| Obverse [0:1] o 1'o 1'–o 1'o 1' | (means) “[...]” |
| Obverse [1:2] o 2'2'–o 2'2' | “If the Kidney Star ve[ry ...]” |
| Obverse [2:3] o 3'3'–o 3'3' | (means) “Saturn in the [...] Constellation [...].” |
| Obverse [3:4] o 4'4'–o 4'4' | “If the Kidney Star is very black ... [...].” |
| Obverse [4:5] o 5'5'–o 5'5' | (means) “Mercury grows faint in the Gula Constellation.” |
| Obverse [5:6] o 6'6'–o 6'6' | “If the Kidney Star comes close to a planet, sesame will pr[osper].” |
| Obverse [6:7] o 7'7'–o 7'7' | (means) “Mercury in the Gula Constellation (i.e., Aquarius) comes close to Saturn.” |
| Obverse [7:8] o 8'8'–o 8'8' | “If the Kidney Star leans on the Raven Constellation, sesame will be good (means) “ditto” (i.e., “Mercury in the Gula Constellation comes close to Saturn).” |
| Obverse [8:9] o 9'9'–o 9'9' | “If Ea grows dark, the field will not prosper” |
| Obverse [9:10] o 10'10'–o 10'10' | (means) “Mercury grows faint in the Goat-Fish Constellation.” |
| Obverse [10:11] o 11'11'–o 11'11' | “If (with respect to) the Eridu Star, a meteor flares up, the harvest of the field of the land will prosper” |
| Obverse [11:12] o 12'12'–o 12'12' | (means) “Mercury, as though it had disappeared, will soon be seen.” |
| Obverse [12:13] o 13'13'–o 13'13' | “If the Ḫabaṣirānu Constellation flickers when it rises (and) is seen at the beginning of the month of Dumuzi, |
| Obverse [13:14] o 14'14'–o 14'14' | the harvest of the land will prosper (and) business will shrink.” |
| Obverse [14:15] o 15'15'–o 15'15' | (means) “Mercury, as though it had disappeared, will soon be seen.” |
| Obverse [15:16] o 16'16'–o 16'16' | (In) “[If] the Ḫabaṣirānu Constellation is late when it rises, the harvest of the land will not prosper,” “to be late” means “to linger” |
| Obverse [16:17] o 17'17'–o 17'17' | (means) “Mercury, as though it had disappeared, exceeds its normal time in the sky.” |
| Reverse [0:1] r 1'r 1'–r 1'r 1' | [If] the Ḫabaṣirānu Constellation, its head looks at the heavens in that year” |
| Reverse [1:2] r 2'2'–r 2'2' | (means) “... [...] ... grows faint.” |
| Reverse [2:3] r 3'3'–r 3'3' | [If] the [...] constellation [...] |
Transliteration (ATF)
From Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC default); per-file JSON license fields say: This data is released under the CC0 license (133618)
| Line | ATF | Machine English (draft) |
|---|---|---|
| o | ||
| 1' | ⸢x x⸣ [...] | |
| 2' | {mul}ELLAG₂ ⸢ma⸣-[diš SIG₇ ...] | |
| 3' | {d}SAG.UŠ ina {⸢mul}x⸣ [...] ⸢x x x⸣ [...] | |
| 4' | {mul}ELLAG₂ ma-diš GE₆ [(x)] ⸢ka⸣ ŠE u ⸢x⸣ [x x x] | |
| 5' | {d}GU₄.UD ina {mul}gu-la u₂-tan-[nat-ma] | |
| 6' | {mul}ELLAG₂ {mul}UDU.IDIM it-te-hi ŠE.GIŠ.I₃ SI.[SA₂] | |
| 7' | {d}GU₄.UD ina {mul}gu-la ana {d}SAG.UŠ TE{⸢e⸣} | |
| 8' | {mul}ELLAG₂ ana {mul}UGA{mušen} i-mid ŠE.GIŠ.I₃ SIG₅ ŠU.BI.AŠ.AM₃ | |
| 9' | {d}e₂-a a-dir GAN₂.ZI NU SI.SA₂ | |
| 10' | {d}GU₄.UD ina {mul}SUHUR.MAŠ₂{ku₆} u₂-tan-nat | |
| 11' | {mul}NUN.KI miš-ha im-šuh₂ BURU₁₄ GAN₂.ZI KUR SI.SA₂ | |
| 12' | {d}GU₄.UD ki-ma TUM₃ ha-an-ṭiš IGI-ma | |
| 13' | {mul}EN.TE.NA.BAR.HUM ina E₃-šu mu-lu-uh ina SAG {iti}ŠU.NUMUN.NA IGI | |
| 14' | BURU₁₄ KUR SI.SA₂ KI.LAM {i}TUR | |
| 15' | {d}GU₄.UD ki-ma TUM₃ ha-an-ṭiš IGI-ma | |
| 16' | {mul}EN.TE.NA.BAR.HUM ina E₃-šu a-pi₂-il BURU₁₄ NU SI.SA₂ up-pu-lu ka-a-šu₂ | |
| 17' | {d}GU₄.UD GIM TUM₃ a-dan{an}šu₂ ina AN{e} DIB{iq}ma | |
| r | ||
| 1' | {⸢mul⸣}EN.⸢TE.NA.BAR.HUM SAG-šu₂ AN{e} i-na-aṭ-ṭa-la⸣ ina MU BI | |
| 2' | ⸢x⸣ zi ⸢x x⸣ [x x x] ⸢x x x u₂-tan⸣-nat-ma | |
| 3' | {⸢mul⸣}[...]-kur-ru | |
| 4' | [...]-ma | |
Sources & licences
- Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative · CDLI: reuse of catalogue/transliteration data with citation of CDLI; images restricted (not fetched) · Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI), https://cdli.earth/ ; cite CDLI and the P-number
- Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (ORACC) · CC BY-SA 3.0 (ORACC default); per-file JSON license fields say: This data is released under the CC0 license (133618) · ORACC project editions, https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/ ; cite the individual project (see texts.extra_json.project)
- electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich · MIT (eBL Zenodo dataset); platform terms unverified · electronic Babylonian Library (eBL), LMU Munich, https://www.ebl.lmu.de/ ; Zenodo dataset (MIT)
Cite the original edition and translator. Page generated by Unread Atlas from the public corpus export of 2026-10-11.