Position in chronology
Tiglath-pileser I 01
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) The god Aššur, the great lord, the one who properly administers all of the gods, the grantor of scepter and crown, the sustainer of kingship; the god Enlil, the lord, the king of all of the Anunnakū gods, the father of the gods, the lord of the lands; (i 5) the god Sîn, the wise one, the lord of the lunar disk, the lofty divine crescent; the god Šamaš, the judge of heaven (and) netherworld, the one who espies the enemy’s treachery, the who exposes the wicked; the god Adad, the hero who storms over hostile regions, the (i 10) mountains, the (and) seas; the god Ninurta, the valiant one,…
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/Q005926/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoAššur, great lord, who keeps the totality of the gods in order, / giver of sceptre and crown, who establishes kingship; / Enlil, lord, king of all the Anunnaki, / father of the gods, lord of all lands; / Sîn, the wise, lord of the crown, / exalted one of the crescent-boat; / Šamaš, judge of heaven and earth, who observes / the overthrow of enemies, who guides the flock aright; / Adad, the hero, who overwhelms the quarters of the enemy lands, / [lord of] the mountain-seas; / Ninurta, the warrior, who slays the wicked and the enemy, / who destroys all that his heart desires; /…
5 uncertain terms ↓
- dMÁ.GUR₈ — Logogram literally 'boat of heaven'; here an epithet of Sîn referring to the crescent moon conceived as a celestial boat. Rendered 'crescent-boat' following standard convention; some scholars simply write 'the Crescent'.
- ša-qu-ú — Stative of šaqû, 'to be/become high, exalted'. Modifies the preceding divine name or stands as a further epithet; could also be parsed as 'the Exalted One who [rides/possesses] the crescent-boat'.
- mu-šem-ṣu-ú mal lìb-bi — Literally 'who causes to perish/destroys the full content of (his) heart', i.e. all that he desires to destroy. Some editions render 'who annihilates whatever his heart desires [to destroy]'. The exact nuance of mal libbi here is debatable.
- KUR.MEŠ AB.MEŠ-ti — Literally 'mountains (and) seas' or 'mountain-seas'; functions as a merism for the whole known world. Some translators render 'the mountain ranges and the seas'.
- mu-še-eb-ru ṣe-ni — From ebēru, 'to cross over/lead across'; ṣēnu = 'flock/small cattle'. Rendered 'who guides the flock aright' but may carry the metaphorical sense of 'who leads the people safely across'.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows a large octagonal clay prism displayed in eight faces, with two end-cap views also shown. The surface carries densely inscribed cuneiform in multiple columns; the wedge impressions are visible under magnification but at this image resolution individual signs cannot be read with confidence — especially in the heavily discoloured or eroded patches on faces 3–5 (centre of the row), where surface accretion and cracks obscure entire passages. Faces 1–2 and 6–8 appear relatively well preserved, with horizontal lines of text clearly present, but resolution is insufficient to confirm individual sign readings against the transliteration. This is transliteration-driven with photo providing general confirmation of the object type (Assyrian royal octagonal prism), consistent with a Tiglath-pileser I annalistic/dedicatory cylinder, paralleled by the well-known Tiglath-pileser I Annals prism (e.g. AKA pp. 32ff.; RIMA 2 A.0.87.1). The invocation of Aššur, Enlil, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, and Ninurta as a divine introduction is standard for Neo-Assyrian royal inscriptions of this king. 'dMÁ.GUR₈' as an epithet of Sîn rendered 'crescent-boat' is conventional; 'ša-qu-ú dMÁ.GUR₈' is translated 'exalted one of the crescent-boat' following Grayson RIMA 2. The catalog period label 'middle-babylonian' likely reflects a scribal/archival convention rather than the actual Neo-Assyrian date of composition.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3263 in / 1069 out tokens
Why it matters
Opens with the fullest early pantheon invocation in Tiglath-pileser I's royal corpus, mapping the precise hierarchy — Aššur, Enlil, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, Ninurta — that legitimised Middle Assyrian imperial kingship.
Transliteration
da-šur EN GAL muš-te-šìr kiš-šat DINGIR.MEŠ / na-din GIŠ.GIDRU ù a-ge-e mu-kín MAN-ti / dEN.LÍL be-lu MAN gi-mir da-nun-na-ki / a-bu DINGIR.MEŠ EN KUR.KUR / d30 er-šu EN a-ge-e / ša-qu-ú dMÁ.GUR₈ / dUTU DI.KU₅ AN KI-ti ḫa-a-iṭ / ṣa-al-pat a-a-be mu-še-eb-ru ṣe-ni / dIŠKUR ur-ša-nu ra-ḫi-iṣ kib-rat KÚR.MEŠ / KUR.MEŠ AB.MEŠ-ti / dnin-urta qar-du šá-giš lem-ni ù a-a-bi / mu-šem-ṣu-ú mal lìb-bi /…
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 Q005926.
Attribution
Image: BM 091034 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P393921). 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/Q005926/.
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