Position in chronology
Adad-narari I 01
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Adad-nārārī (I), holy ruler, pride of the gods, lord, appointee of the gods, founder of cult centers, defeater of the heroic — the arm(ies) of the Kassites, Gutians, Lullumê, and Šubareans — scatterer of all of (his) enemies above and below, trampler of their lands from (the city) Lubdu and the land Rapiqu to (the land) Eluḫat, conqueror of the cities Taidu, Šūru, Kaḫat, Amasaku, Ḫurra, Šuduḫu, Nabulu, Waššukanni (Uššukani), and Irridu, the entirety of Mount Kāšiāru, as far as (the city) Eluḫat, the fortress of the city Sūdu, the fortress of (the city) Ḫarrān, as far as the city…
Source: Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q005738/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoAdad-narari, pure prince, fitting ornament of the gods, exalted one, establisher of the cult-seats of the gods, confirmer of cult-centres, slayer of the mighty enemy-hordes of the Kassites, the Gutians, the Lullumeans, and the Subareans, who overwhelmed all enemies above and below, who trampled their lands, from Lubdi and Mount Rapiqu to Eluḫat — conqueror of the city Taidi, the city Šuri, the city Kaḫat, the city Amasaki, the city Ḫurra, the city Šuduḫi, the city Nabula…
6 uncertain terms ↓
- si-mat DINGIR.MEŠ — 'Fitting ornament / appropriate adornment of the gods' — si-mat can mean 'fitting for, worthy of'; some translate 'chosen of the gods'.
- šá-ka-an-ki DINGIR.MEŠ — Reading šá-ka-an-ki as 'establisher of cult-seats (kigallū?)'; -ki may refer to cult-seats or sacred precincts; some editions read šá-ka-an GIŠ.GU.ZA.
- mu-kín ma-ḫa-zi — 'Confirmer / restorer of cult-centres (maḫāzu)'; maḫāzu can mean cult city, shrine-city, or cult-centre broadly.
- né-ir dap-nu-ti — 'Slayer of the mighty (ones)' — dapnūti can mean mighty, fierce, or powerful; applied to enemy armies.
- lu-ub-di — Lubdi — a geographic region; exact location debated, generally placed near the middle Euphrates or Zagros foothills area.
- KUR.ra-pi-qu — Mount / land Rapiqu — a border region on the middle Euphrates; the precise extent of Assyrian control here is discussed in scholarship.
Reasoning ↓
Photo examined: The image shows a multi-part clay tablet composite — a large obverse face flanked by two lateral edge-pieces and a top register fragment, plus what appears to be a reverse face below. The wedge impressions are generally clear and well-preserved across most of the surface, though the lower portion of the main face shows some surface wear and the lateral edge pieces are narrow with partially legible signs. The upper registers of the main face show dense, well-incised Akkadian cuneiform consistent with Middle Assyrian scribal practice. The photo resolution allows recognition of sign clusters but not individual sign-by-sign verification across all lines; the opening royal epithets and geographical names are broadly consistent with what the transliteration provides. The transliteration follows the standard Adad-narari I royal titulary well-known from RIMA 1, A.0.76, with established readings for the city names Taidi, Kaḫat, and others. The term 'mdIŠKUR-ERIM.TÁḪ' (Adad-narari) is clearly the royal name. Cross-check: the photo cannot be used to verify individual sign values line by line at this resolution, but no obvious discrepancies between the visual impression and the transliteration were detected.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v2 · May 11, 2026 · 2650 in / 924 out tokens
Why it matters
Lists the cities and peoples — Kassites, Gutians, Lullumê, Šubareans — subjugated by Adad-nārārī I, documenting Assyria's territorial expansion toward the Euphrates and into Mitanni's former heartland around 1300 BCE.
Transliteration
mdIŠKUR-ERIM.TÁḪ NUN el-lu si-mat DINGIR.MEŠ / e-tel-lu šá-ka-an-ki DINGIR.MEŠ mu-kín ma-ḫa-zi / né-ir dap-nu-ti um-ma-an kaš-ši-i / qu-ti-i lu-lu-mì-i ù šu-ba-ri-i / mu-dí-ip kúl-la-at na-ki-ri e-li-iš / ù šap-li-iš da-iš KUR.KUR-šu-nu / iš-tu lu-ub-di ù KUR.ra-pi-qu / a-di e-lu-ḫa-at ka-ši-id URU.ta-i-di / URU.šu-ri URU.ka-ḫa-at URU.a-ma-sa-ki / URU.ḫu-ur-ra URU.šu-du-ḫi URU.na-bu-la /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of an Assyrian king, published in the Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online project (RIAo). Translation reproduced from the ORACC edition. ORACC text Q005738.
Attribution
Image: CBS 09446 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P264815). source
Translation excerpted from Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q005738/.
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