The Death of Utu-hegal and Other Historical Omens

Abstract

The subject of this article is a sequence of three historical omen apodoses that mention Mesopotamian kings of the third millennium BC: two kings of the North named …bagar and Rabsisi, the king of Uruk Utu-hegal, and the last king of the Ur III Dynasty Ibbi-Sîn. The sequence derives from the eighth tablet of Šumma ḫašû, “If the lung(s),” the ninth chapter of the extispicy series Bārûtu. The discussion of the passage and its parallels adds to our knowledge of the Mesopotamian historical omens and demonstrates the remarkably wide reach of intertextual connections that can be identified in omen collections. Two appendices offer an edition of two previously unpublished divinatory tablets containing historical omens.