Position in chronology
Tiglath-pileser I 12
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') [... Kardu]niaš (Babylonia). I brought [... to my city], Aššur. (3') [... the city ...]irdi, cities of the land Qum[anî …, which ...] held, which [had withheld] tribute and impost [from (the god) Aššur, my lord, which from ancient times had not] known submission, into the midst of which no king [who came before m]e had marched [...] my chariots and troops I mustered. I conquered the cities [...], Matqiu, Sudru[n, ...], Arruḫundu, Sāqa, [...], Iništi, the other Sāqa, [...t]un, Šuria, and Na[...ḫ]irdi, the cities of the land Ḫab[ḫu, ...], the cities Lūa, Ḫirištu, [...], altogether fourteen…
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/Q005937/
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[... Kardu]niash [...] / [... to my city] Aššur he brought [(...)] / [... he led away] the cities of the land of Qum[meni? (...)] / [... who with]held tribute and audience-gift / [from Aššur, my lord — who withheld (it); who from distant days had not] known submission to any king whatso[ever] / [who had not come] to their heart [as my predecessor], / [... char]iots and my troops I mustered, / [... ] ... the city of Matqiu...
8 uncertain terms ↓
- KUR.kar-du-ni-áš — Karduniaš: standard Neo-Assyrian designation for Babylonia; partially broken at left edge, restoration tentative.
- KUR.qum-me-ni — Qummeni: a land/region in the upper Tigris area; restoration uncertain, signified by '?' in transliteration.
- i-kal-lu-ni — From kalû, 'to withhold/detain'; subject and object supplied from context and parallel passages.
- GUN ù ta-mar-ta — GUN = biltu, 'tribute'; ta-mar-tu, 'audience gift / greeting gift' — a standard paired phrase in royal annals.
- iš-tu UD ṣa-a-te — Literally 'from distant/remote days'; a formulaic phrase. ṣâtu can mean 'distant time' or 'remote past'; well-attested in Tiglath-pileser I contexts.
- ka-na-ša — Infinitive of kanāšu, 'to submit/be submissive'; here as object of 'know' (idû). Standard royal annals idiom.
- a-lik pa-ni-ia — Literally 'one who went before me' — conventional term for royal predecessor(s); restoration is standard for this formula.
- URU.ma-at-qi-ú — City name; reading uncertain, possibly Matqiu or a variant; sign sequence only partially preserved.
Reasoning ↓
The photograph shows two main fragments of a clay tablet (museum number K.2807, labelled 'T-P.' — i.e. Tiglath-pileser — on the edge view), both with densely inscribed Assyrian cuneiform. The obverse (upper fragment) preserves multiple lines of relatively fine, closely-spaced wedges; the reverse or lower fragment (bottom set of images) is more damaged with surface erosion and a circular hole/drill mark visible. At this image resolution the individual signs are extremely difficult to read with confidence: some horizontal and diagonal wedges are discernible in the upper fragment, consistent with Neo-Assyrian royal-annals script, but I cannot independently verify or correct specific signs against the provided transliteration. The transliteration is drawn from the ORACC edition of Tiglath-pileser I Inscription 12 (Q005937). The text appears to be a fragmentary passage from royal annals describing withheld tribute from Karduniaš (Babylonia) and/or Qummeni, followed by a military muster — a pattern well attested in Tiglath-pileser I's annals (cf. RIMA 2, A.0.87.1). Significant portions of the beginning of each line are broken, supplied here as conjectural restorations in square brackets following standard scholarly practice.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3280 in / 974 out tokens
Why it matters
Lists fourteen conquered cities in the lands of Qumanî and Ḫabḫu — territories whose rulers had withheld tribute from Aššur — supplying rare toponymic evidence for Assyrian expansion into the northern periphery under Tiglath-pileser I.
Transliteration
[... KUR.kar-du?]-ni-⸢áš⸣ [...] / [... a-na URU-ia] da-⸢šur ub⸣-[la (...)] / [...]-ir-di URU.MEŠ-ni ša KUR.⸢qum⸣-[me-ni? (...)] / [... i]-⸢kal⸣-lu-ni ša GUN ù ta-⸢mar⸣-[ta] / [a-na da-šur EN-ia ik-lu-ú? ša iš-tu UD ṣa-a-te? la i]-⸢du⸣-ú ka-na-ša ša MAN a-ia-⸢um⸣-[ma] / [a-lik pa-ni]-⸢ia⸣ a-na lìb-be-šu-nu la il-li-⸢ku⸣ / [... GIŠ].GIGIR.MEŠ ù ERIM.ḪI.A.MEŠ-ia ad-⸢ke⸣ / [...] x URU.ma-at-qi-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 Q005937.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394687). 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/Q005937/.
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