Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 1013
Written in modern English
The broken opening lines mention nobles who once delivered yearly payments to the king's ancestors, and describe an enemy people whose home is set in a mountain cleft like an eagle's nest, their settlements secure and their troops well organized. Then the gods Nabû, Sîn, Ištar, and Nergal march at the king's side, launching an assault and setting an attack in motion — and the enemy panics. In their terror they foolishly abandon their king and his vast army, though the rest of what happened to them is lost in the damaged surface.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(o 1') [...] ... [...]s and the noble(s), who(m) my ancestors ... [... to d]eliver payment, which [...] yearly [...] trusted [...], like an eagle [whose dwelling] is situated in a mountain cleft, [...] whose settlements are [s]ituated [...], whose forces are organized (and) [whose] troo[ps are ...]. (o 6') [The deities ...], Nabû, Sîn, Ištar, (and) Nergal, who march at [my] side, [...] ... the assault of troops (and) the setting of an atta[ck] in motion, [...] and they became terrified. They foolishly forgot [...] royal ..., including all of his extens[ive] troops, (10´) [...], (and) his…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Transliteration
[...] x x x (x) [...]1 / [...] x.⸢MEŠ⸣ u GAL-u ša AD.MEŠ-ia ⸢ú⸣-x [...] / [... a-na?] ⸢na⸣-še-e man-da-at-ti šá šat-ti-šam-⸢ma⸣ [...] / [...] x tak-lum GIM TI₈.MUŠEN ina šá-ḫat KUR-e šit-ku-na-⸢at⸣ [šu-bat-su] / [...] ⸢šit?⸣-ku-nu da-ad-me-šú kàṣ-rat el-lat-su e-mu-⸢qi⸣-[šú x x (x)] / [...] x dMUATI d30 d15 dU.GUR a-li-ku Á.⸢II⸣-[ia] / [...] x-ti ti-bu-ut ERIM-ni di-ku-ut a-na-⸢an⸣-[ti] /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q009281.
Attribution
Image: Created by Jamie Novotny and Joshua Jeffers, 2015-22. Lemmatized by Joshua Jeffers, 2018-19, for the NEH-funded RINAP Project at the University of Pennsylvania. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0.. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/rinap/Q009281/..
Translation excerpted from Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q009281/.
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