Position in chronology
Aššur-reša-iši I 02
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Aššur-rēša-iši (I), appointee the god Enlil, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, (the one) whose dominion the gods Anu, Enlil, and Ea — the great gods — designated for the proper administration of Assyria and whose priesthood they blessed, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Mutakkil-Nusku, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, (and) son of Aššur-dān (I), (who was) also vice-regent of (the god) Aššur. (3) At that time, (as for) the towers of the large gate, that are in front of the (monumental) lions of the main forecourt of the temple of the goddess Ištar of Nineveh, my lady,…
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/Q005900/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoAššur-reša-iši, appointee of Nabû, priest of Aššur, whom Anu, Enlil, and Ea, the great gods, / called to set the land of Aššur, his lord, aright, and his faithful priest, mighty king, king of the universe, king of the land of Aššur, / son of Mutakkil-Nusku, priest of Aššur, son of Aššur-dān, priest of Aššur — when the bright (doorway) of the great gate / at the head of the lion, at the great courtyard of the temple of Ištar of the city of Nineveh, my lady, / in the street-quarter that Aššur-dān had built in its time…
6 uncertain terms ↓
- šá-ak-ni dAB ŠID — šākin Nabû šangû — 'appointee of Nabû, priest (of Aššur)'; šākin can also be rendered 'governor' or 'steward' but in priestly/royal context 'appointee' is conventional.
- na-mé-ru šá KÁ GAL-te — nāmeru ša bāb rabīte — 'bright (feature/doorway) of the great gate'; nāmeru literally 'bright/luminous thing' — possibly a specific architectural element (lintel, façade panel, or threshold); exact referent debated.
- SAG UR.MAḪ — rēš nēši — 'head of the lion'; likely a lion-colossal or lion-threshold architectural feature flanking the gate; could refer to a specific topographic or cultic marker.
- KISAL.MAḪ — kisal rabû — 'great courtyard'; reading confirmed by standard Neo-Assyrian temple terminology, but the sign group is partially abraded in the transliteration (brackets on KISAL).
- i-na ri-be — ina rebīti — 'in the street / street-quarter / open plaza'; rebītu can mean the broad street, square, or quarter of a city depending on context.
- mu-tàk-kil-dnusku — Mutakkil-Nusku — father of Aššur-reša-iši I; the name means 'trusting in (the god) Nusku'; spelling with tàk confirms the Assyrian phonological form.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a curved ceramic or fired-clay fragment (British Museum reg. 122684, excavated 1930, found between bricks and a stone course at the NW wall). The inscribed face (top view) carries a single curved band of cuneiform running along the lower rim of what appears to be a circular clay disc or cone. Wedge impressions are visible but the resolution and curvature of the object make individual sign verification difficult beyond confirming the presence of multiple groups of wedge-clusters consistent with Akkadian royal titulary. The back bears a modern excavation note in English. Layer 2 relies on the provided transliteration: the text is a standard Neo-Assyrian royal building inscription formula for Aššur-reša-iši I (c. 1133–1116 BCE), naming his priestly titles, divine patrons (Anu, Enlil, Ea), his genealogy through Mutakkil-Nusku and Aššur-dān I, and contextualizing a construction or restoration at the Ištar temple of Nineveh. The titulary 'šar māt Aššur' is rendered 'king of the land of Aššur' and 'šar kiššati' as 'king of the universe' per convention. The text breaks off at the building description, consistent with the fragmentary state of the object. Cross-check: the curved inscription band on the obverse photo is consistent with a single line (or compressed multi-line) inscription on a clay cone or disc foundation object, matching the abbreviated nature of the transliteration; individual signs cannot be verified at this resolution.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3299 in / 1081 out tokens
Why it matters
Records Aššur-rēša-iši I's construction at the Ištar temple in Nineveh, situating this reign within the architectural patronage that defined Middle Assyrian kingship's claim to divine favour from Anu, Enlil, and Ea.
Transliteration
maš-šur-SAG-i-ši šá-ak-ni dAB ŠID aš-šur šá ⸢d⸣a-nu dBAD u dDIŠ DINGIR.MEŠ ⸢GAL.MEŠ⸣ / ana šu-te-šur KUR aš-šur EN-su ib-bu-⸢ú (u⸣) ŠÙD ⸢SANGA⸣-su MAN KALA MAN KIŠ MAN KUR aš-šur / A mu-tàk-kil-dnusku ŠID aš-šur A aš-šur-dan ŠID aš-šur-ma e-nu-ma na-mé-ru šá KÁ GAL-te / šá SAG UR.MAḪ šá ki⸢KISAL⸣.MAḪ šá É [d]⸢iš₈⸣-tár šá URU.⸢NINA NIN⸣-ia / i-na ri-be šá i-⸢na⸣ tar-ṣi maš-šur-dan ba-nu-⸢ú⸣…
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 Q005900.
Attribution
Image: BM 122684 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P422457). 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/Q005900/.
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