Curated texts / Omens
Omens
“If… then…” observations from Mesopotamian divination: birds, rivers, the moon and sun, dreams, births, and the entrails of sacrificed sheep. The English shown is an unedited machine draft, and many technical divination terms come out wrong.
Machine drafts. Every English quotation here is unedited output of an ATF-to-English model, not a scholarly translation. Each card names its source; cards marked machine English only come from sources (eBL) whose transliterations we do not republish.
8 tablets
Birds that enter the palace (Šumma ālu)
K.4110 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If a eagle enters the palace and appears in the west: a strong enemy will attack the land, and the land will be destroyed.”line 4
Neo-Assyrian omens from the series Šumma ālu (“If a city…”): what it means when birds enter the palace.
Read the tablet →Earthquakes and winds, month by month (Iqqur īpuš)
K.2049 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If in Nisannu (Month I) the earth quakes: the king's land will defeat him; he will die.”line 70
Neo-Assyrian hemerological omens from Nineveh arranged by month.
Read the tablet →Halos around the moon (Enūma Anu Enlil)
K.200 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If the Moon is surrounded by a yellow halo, and it does not have a gate: a rebellion will take place in the land…”line 51
Lunar omens from the celestial series Enūma Anu Enlil, copied at Nineveh.
Read the tablet →Floods in the city (Šumma ālu)
K.47 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If the flood becomes visible in the middle of the city: weapons will occur and the throne will become confused.”line 41
Neo-Assyrian omens from river floods and their colours.
Read the tablet →Solar eclipses by day of the month (Enūma Anu Enlil)
K.2234 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“…If on the 21st day: the king of Akkad will fall with a weapon.”line 42
Celestial omens predicting events from the day on which the sun is eclipsed.
Read the tablet →Dreaming of a seal (Ziqīqu)
Sm.801 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If a seal is given to the king, his (personal) god will listen to his prayers.”line 13'
Dream omens from Nineveh: what it means to dream of receiving or losing a seal.
Read the tablet →Reading the coils of the colon (Šumma tīrānu)
MLC.1874 · Uruk · Hellenistic“The coils of the colon are like the ribs of the south wind. There will be hunger in the land.”line 76
Hellenistic extispicy text from Uruk: omens from the shape of a sacrificed sheep's intestines.
Read the tablet →Unusual human births (Šumma izbu)
K.3688 · Nineveh · Neo-Assyrian“If a woman gives birth to 2 (children) and it is provided with a 'foot'-mark on their necks and their face is split: a flood will take place.”line 16'
Neo-Assyrian teratological omens from abnormal births, including twins.
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