Position in chronology
Šamši-Adad IV 1
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Šamšī-Adad (IV), strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Tiglath-pileser (I), king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Aššur-rēša-iši (I), (who was) also king of the world (and) king of Assyria. (4) At that time, the towers [of the temple of] the Assyrian [Ištar], my lady, which a ruler who came before me [had built, had become dilapidated (and)] I built (them) [in] their (text: “its”) entirety. (6) I inscribed commemorative inscriptions and clay cones (and) [deposited] (them) therein. (7) [Month ...], eighth day, eponymy of [Šamšī-Adad (IV), king of] Assyria.
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/Q006001/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoŠamši-Adad, strong king, king of the universe, king of the land of Aššur, son of Tiglath-pileser, king of the universe, king of the land of Aššur, son of Aššur-reša-iši, king of the universe, king of the land of Aššur: When the house of the 'panther' [— the temple of Ištar] of Aššur, my lady, which a prince, my predecessor, [had built — I restored] it in its entirety. I wrote [stelae and?] boundary-stones (and) [set them up] within it. [Month ...], 8th day, eponym [of Šamši-Adad, king of the land of] Aššur.
6 uncertain terms ↓
- É na-me-ri — 'House of the panther/leopard' — a cultic name for Ištar's temple at Aššur; 'nāmeru' can mean leopard, panther, or a fierce/shining creature; the precise animal intended is debated.
- NIN-ia — Literally 'my lady'; here referring to Ištar of Aššur as the divine lady of the inscription's author.
- MAN KIŠ (šar kiššati) — Conventionally 'king of the universe'; literally 'king of Kiš,' but by this period a purely honorific title.
- si-ḫír-ti-šu — 'Its entirety' / 'its full extent'; from siḫirtu, meaning the whole circuit or totality of a structure.
- NA₄.[NA.RÚ.A.MEŠ ù?] sik-ka-te.MEŠ — Restoration of 'stelae and boundary-stones (kudurru)'; the NA₄.NA.RÚ.A reading is partly broken and restored from parallel passages.
- li-mu [mšam-ši-dIŠKUR MAN KUR?] — The eponym name and title are largely broken and restored; Šamši-Adad IV is attested as eponym in his own reign but the specific year-line restoration is uncertain.
Reasoning ↓
Visually, the tablet is a fragmentary, roughly fan-shaped clay piece photographed from multiple angles (obverse, reverse, left and right edges, top and bottom edges). The surface of the obverse (top-centre image) shows horizontal rows of wedge impressions consistent with Neo-Assyrian or transitional Middle/Neo-Assyrian script, but the resolution and surface erosion are severe enough that individual signs cannot be securely identified from the photograph alone; the cuneiform is visible as shallow impressions but individual sign forms are not legible at this resolution. The museum label on the reverse reads 'Th 1932 12-10 453' with accession number '123510', consistent with a British Museum acquisition. The transliteration-based reading follows the standard Šamši-Adad IV (c. 1053–1050 BCE) building inscription (Q006001) recorded in ORACC/RIMA 2, A.0.82.1; the composite text is well attested across several manuscript witnesses. 'É na-me-ri' is a designation for a temple or precinct of Ištar of Aššur literally meaning 'house of the panther/leopard,' a known epithet in Assyrian cultic contexts. Lacunae in lines 4–7 are restored following parallel manuscripts as indicated in RIMA 2.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3311 in / 980 out tokens
Why it matters
Documents Šamšī-Adad IV's restoration of the Assyrian Ištar temple at Aššur, anchoring the reign's chronology to a specific eponymy date and establishing the dynastic continuity he claimed from Tiglath-pileser I.
Transliteration
mšam-ši-dIŠKUR MAN dan-nu MAN KIŠ MAN KUR aš-šur / DUMU GIŠ.tukul-ti-IBILA-é-šár-⸢ra⸣ MAN KIŠ MAN KUR aš-šur / DUMU aš-šur-SAG-i-ši MAN KIŠ MAN KUR aš-šur-ma / e-nu-ma É na-me-⸢ri⸣ [ša É diš₈-tár] áš-šu-ri-te NIN-ia / ša NUN-ú a-lik pa-ni-ia [... a-na] si-⸢ḫír⸣-ti-šu ak-še-er / ⸢NA₄⸣.[NA.RÚ.A.MEŠ ù?] ⸢sik⸣-ka-te.MEŠ al-ṭu-ur i-na qer-bi-šu [áš-ku-un] / [ITI....] ⸢u₄⸣-me 8.KÁM li-mu [mšam-ši-dIŠKUR MAN KUR?] 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 Q006001.
Attribution
Image: BM 123510 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P422586). 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/Q006001/.
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