The 'base (or stand) of the throne' (logograms ŠUB-AŠ.TE or ŠUB-(GIŠ).GU.ZA), attested from the OB period on, in both omen texts and extispicy reports,[[151]] is located on the liver in the area between the gall bladder and the caudate lobe, closer to the latter. For its suggested identification with the renal impression on the liver, see Starr Rituals p. 88.[[152]]
It is possible that this part of the liver is identical with the '(base of) the throne of the finger' (išdi) kussî ša ubāni, attested, for example, in RA 27 142:9ff.
151 E.g, ni-di GIŠ.GU.ZA-(i-)im, YOS 10 11 ii 36 and 33 i 20; ni-di GU.ZA, JCS 11 no. 3:6 (OB report). It is also attested in syllabic writing as madda/maddi kussî in JCS 11 105 no. 23:6 and JCS 21 230 N:14, 26'(Mari).
152 The close proximity of the 'base of the throne' to the caudate lobe is evident from passages such as "there is a thick cyst in the right surface of the 'finger' in the place of the 'base of the throne,"' AfO 22 61 r.26, cf. ibid, 39 and CT 44 37:18.
Ivan Starr
Ivan Starr, 'The 'Base of the Throne' (nīdi kussî)', 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/theliveranditsparts/thebaseofthethrone/]