The 'Cavity' (ruqqu) and the 'Back' (ṣēru)

Hussey (loc. cit.) identified the 'cavity' (logogram SAL.LA MUR) and 'back' of the lung with the concave (mediastinal) and convex surfaces of the lungs, respectively.^[[183]] In the protases on which the Sargonid haruspices have drawn, the major characteristic of it is that it is split either on the right or on the left.^[[184]]

183 Cf. Starr Rituals, p. 70 and, for occurrences of the two in context, ibid. 31:30f, 35; 34:87f, 92.

184 E.g. 77 r.7, 305:7, 345:6 (split on the right); 308:11 (on the left). Cf. K 3638+ (Lenormant Choix 88) r.8ff and KAR 423 r.i 76f.

Ivan Starr

Ivan Starr, ' The 'Cavity' (ruqqu) and the 'Back' (ṣēru)', 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/TheLungsandTheirParts/The'Cavity'andthe'Back'/]

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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