Accumulations of Markings

The presence of different fortuitous markings within individual parts of the liver is commonly attested.^[[230]] The liver itself as a whole is said on several occasions to be filled with sundry fortuitous markings, for example, 'weapon' marks, cysts, holes, 'request'-marks, and cross-shaped marks (TCL 6 1 rev. 3ff). In the extant part of the unpublished Kuyunjik tablet K 3868, which likewise deals with the presence of fortuitous markings on the liver, we find kaksû-marks, 'request'-marks (written NIN.MEŠ), and cross-shaped marks. Equally common is the presence of markings within markings, either of the same or of a different kind, e.g.:

"in the left side of the gall bladder there is a fissure within a fissure; (...) between the right and the left, in the right side there is a hole within a hole," KAR 150:7ff and r.9f;

"in the top of the 'finger' there is an atrophied part within an atrophied part," YOS 10 6:4;

"there is a hole in the top of the 'weapon'-mark on the right; (...) there is a cyst in the top of the 'weapon'-mark on the right," YOS 10 46 iii 40 and iv 38;

"in the left side of the gall bladder there is a 'foot'-mark and within it there is a cyst/'request'-mark/hole/'weapon'-mark," CT 30 2:17ff.

230 Aside from the examples cited above, see also RA 38 81 r.32-37 (cross-shaped mark/cyst/'foot'-mark/'request'-mark on the 'strength'), YOS 10 18:4ff (cross-shaped mark/'request'-mark/cyst/hole on the 'path'), CT 31 114:9ff (cyst/'request'-mark/'weapon'-mark in the 'enclosure').

Ivan Starr

Ivan Starr, 'Accumulations of Markings', Queries to the Sungod: Divination and Politics in Sargonid Assyria, SAA 4. Original publication: Helsinki, Helsinki University Press, 1990; online contents: SAAo/SAA04 Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2025 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa04/OtherPartsandFeaturesoftheExta/AccumulationsofMarkings/]

SAAo/SAA04, 2014-. Since 2015, SAAo is based at the Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München, Historisches Seminar (LMU Munich, History Department) - Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East. Content released under a CC BY-SA 3.0 [http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/] license, 2007-20.
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