The introductory line is followed immediately by the query, which often opens with a statement of a specified period of time (adannu) in which the event described in the query may occur and to which the efficacy of the divination is limited.[[10]] This specified period places a time limit on the answer to the query, which may refer to enemy action anticipated or in progress, such as an attack on Assyrian territory, a garrison, etc; or, to the Assyrian king himself when embarking or planning to embark on some military or diplomatic activity necessitated by enemy action. The number of days in this specified time period varies from query to query, and was no doubt governed by such practical considerations as the occasion called for, but in the extant queries it is from 7 to 100 days (and nights); 20, 30, 40, 50 and 90 days are also attested. The fullest version of the formula is: "From this day, the ...th day of this month MN, until the ... day of MN of this year, for a period of x days and x nights, the term stipulated for the performance of the extispicy - within this stipulated term ..."; for variants, see Knudtzon AGS, p. 14f.
Stipulated terms are attested not only in queries necessitated by enemy threat,[[11]] but also where action is initiated by the king, as in nos. 16, 28, 81, 124, etc. Noteworthy is also the fact that such terms are attested in queries in which the loyalty of sundry officials of the realm is questioned (see nos. 139, 142, 144, 145, etc.; a stipulated term of 90 days is preserved in full only in no. 139). The significance of this fact is that it does point to a specific event of unrest or rebellion and may explain the laconic statement in the Esarhaddon Chronicle[[12]] that in the king's eleventh year (i.e. 670 B.C.) numerous officers had been put to death, an event which must have left open numerous vacancies in the ranks of the royal officials.
In some cases, when the stipulated term is carried over into the following year, this is carefully indicated in the formula. See, for example, no. 60:2ff ("[from this day, the ... day of this month], Shebat of [this year, to the ... day of Nisan of the c]oming [year], 40 days [and nights ... ]"); further 124:2ff, 125:3, 263:2; and 265 r.7. Note also the formulation of no. 28:3, "twenty days and nights, the passing and the coming days (included)".[[13]] In cases when the days of the stipulated term were shared by two adjacent months, the latter was consistently designated as "the coming month" (cf. nos. 23 r.8; 128:2; 142:2, r.7; and see Klauber PRT, p. xiii).
The practice of designating a specific period of time for the efficacy of an extispicy is known from the OB period. Several examples are attested in Mari, e.g. têrētim ... arhu 30 ūmī u 30 mušêtim, "extispicies (for) a month, thirty days and nights", JCS 21 228 M:7ff; "extispicies which are (valid) to the beginning of the month," ARM 13 115:9ff; "the extispicy is favorable to the third day," ARM 3 30:9f.[[14]]
The individual too could set for himself a specified term for the efficacy of his request. In two recently published OB ikribus from Tell ed-Der, dated to the reign of Ammisaduqa, the suppliant is setting a term of a year or so (360 days to be exact, 6 šuši) for the efficacy of his prayer to be valid.[[15]] On the occurrence of a stipulated term corresponding to the adannu in the classical sources, see C.J. Gadd, CRRAI 14 (1966), p. 31f.
The term for extispicy occurring in the adannu formula (nēpešti bārûti) is also attested in the introductory formulas of late OB extispicy reports, e.g. "one lamb for nēpešti bārîm", JCS 11 91 no. 8:1, similarly JCS 2 77:8; note also "six birds for divination (nēpešti bārîm)," BE 6/1 118:1.[[16]] Another, more common term for extispicy in the late OB and Kassite reports was lipit qāti,[[17]] and in letters from Mari, nēpeštu "extispicy" appears side by side with têrtu "oracle."[[18]] It is clear from the relevant contexts that all three terms, lipit qāti, tērtu, and nēpeštu appear in apposition to each other, and should be considered, for practical purposes, synonymous. More narrowly defined, the word têrtu referred to the omens derived from the inspection of the exta, while lipit qāti designated the inspection of the exta itself and nēpeštu was the general term for the ritual acts performed in the course of extispicy.[[19]]
10 The stipulated term need not always begin with line 2; see no. 44:2ff, where it begins in line 4.
11 See Klauber PRT, p. xii.
12 Grayson Chronicles no. 14; cf. ibid. no. 1 iv 29.
13 See CAD E 293a s.v. ēribu and cf. Knudtzon AGS, p. 15f.
14 Note also the group of omens in KAR 452:7ff, where a term of one month is evidently involved but for purposes of prediction the action described in the apodoses progresses at intervals of three days.
15 See L. De Meyer in Fs Kraus (1982), pp. 271ff.
16 On the use of birds for divination, see Starr Rituals, p. 61.
17 See, for example, JCS 21 224 I:1f, where both lipit qāti and nēpešti bārîm appear together, and note in addition JNES 15 142:61, "extispicies (lipit qāti), haruspex rituals (nēpešti bārîm) set obstacles in my way", and AnBi 12 284:57 "(evil omens resulting from) extispicy (lipit qāti) and haruspex rituals (nēpešti bārîm), which keep occuring in my house." Note also immer lipit qāti, "the sacrificial sheep," Hh xiii 145.
18 E.g., "I have not performed an extispicy (têrtam) With them (the diviners of Hammurapi), I am (therefore) not sending a report of their extispicies (ṭēm nēpeštišunu) to my lord", JCS 21 229 M:36ff; cf. ibid. 7ff and ARM 2 97:22f. For nēpeštum alone referring to extispicies, see further ARM 2 133:10 ("they have exhausted their lambs in making extispicies") and ARM 7 263 iv 16.
19 Cf. nēpešti kalûti/asûti/āšipūti i.e. the rituals of the lamentation priest, the physician, and the exorcist, respectively. On the terms discussed, see also Goetze, JCS 11 (1957) 94; Reiner, AS 16, p. 248 n. 5.
Ivan Starr
Ivan Starr, 'The Stipulated Term', 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, 2020 [http://oracc.org/saao/saa04/formularyandterminology/thestipulatedterm/]