Position in chronology
Tukulti-Ninurta I 40
About this tablet
A fragment of a royal inscription of Tukulti-Ninurta I, king of Assyria in the 13th century BCE, best known for his conquest of Babylon. Only the opening genealogy survives: the king names himself, his father Shalmaneser I, and his grandfather Adad-nārārī I, each styled 'appointee of Enlil, vice-regent of Aššur.' This standard three-generation titulary opened most Middle Assyrian building inscriptions; whatever building or deed the text went on to record is lost in the break.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
Only the letterhead of this inscription survives. It reads: 'Tukulti-Ninurta, chosen by the god Enlil and governor on behalf of the god Aššur; son of Shalmaneser, likewise Enlil's appointee and Aššur's vice-regent; son of Adad-nārārī, who also held those same divine offices.' In other words, three generations of Assyrian kings, each claiming the same divine mandate. After this formal introduction the tablet breaks off, and whatever project or achievement the king went on to commemorate is lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine[Tukultī-]Ninurta (I), appointee of the god Enlil, [vice-regent of the god Aššur], [son of Shalmaneser (I)], appointee of the god Enlil, [vice-regent of the god Aššur], [son of Adad-nārārī (I), (who was) also appointee of the god] Enlil (and) vice-regent of [the god Aššur]; [...] ... [...] (the remainder is broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[mGIŠ.tukul-ti-d]MAŠ GAR d⸢BAD⸣ [ŠID daš-šur] / [A dsál-ma-nu-SAG] GAR dBAD [ŠID daš-šur] / [A 10-ERIM.TÁḪ GAR d]⸢BAD⸣ ŠID [daš-šur-ma] / [...] x [...]
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 Q005876.
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/Q005876/..
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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