Position in chronology
Adad-narari I 04
Written in modern English
At that time, a structure in the city of Taidu had fallen into disrepair, so Adad-narari tore out the crumbling sections, rebuilt it from the foundations up to the crenellations, and sealed his commemorative inscriptions inside. He asks that any future ruler who finds the building decayed repair it and restore his inscribed name to its proper place — if they do, the god Aššur will hear their prayers. Anyone who tampers with his inscription or erases his name should expect Aššur to destroy their kingship; a goddess's curse follows, but the surface is too damaged to read her name or the rest of her verdict.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RIAo(37) At that time, the ... of the city Taidu had become dilapidated and I removed its dilapidated section(s). I restored it. I built (it) from its foundations to its crenellations. Moreover, I deposited my commemorative inscriptions (therein). (42b) In the future, may a future ruler, when that building becomes old and dilapidated, renovate its dilapidated section(s) (and) return my inscribed name to its place. [(The god) Aššur] will (then) listen to his prayers. (46) (As for) the one [who alters] my inscription and [my] name, may Aššur, my lord, [overthrow] his kingship. May the [goddess]…
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
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Transliteration
i-na u₄-mi-šu-ma / (blank) ⸢É?⸣ / šá URU.ta-i-di e-na-aḫ-ma an-ḫu-⸢su⸣ / ú-né-ki-ir a-na aš-ri-šu ú-te-er / iš-tu uš-še-šu a-di gaba-dib-bi-šu e-pu-uš ù na-re-ia / aš-ku-un a-na ar-kat UD.MEŠ NUN ar-ku-ú e-nu-ma / ⸢É šu-ú ú-šal-ba⸣-ru-ma e-na-[ḫu] / an-ḫu-⸢su lu-di⸣-iš šu-mì šaṭ-[ra] / a-na aš-ri-šu lu-te-er [daš-šur] / ik-ri-bi-šu i-še-me ⸢mu⸣-[né-kir₆] / ši-iṭ-ri-ia ù šu-[mi-ia] / [aš]-šur…
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 Q005741.
Attribution
Image: Based on A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC) (RIMA 1), Toronto, 1987. Adapted by Jamie Novotny (2015-16) and lemmatized and updated by Nathan Morello (2016) for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/riao/Q005741/..
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/Q005741/.
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