Ashurbanipal 136

~655 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·Q007544

Translation · reference

High confidence

Obverse completely missing (r 1) My heart became enraged about the[s]e deeds (and) [my temper] turned hot. [I] mustered my troops (and) set ou[t on the road] against Ummanaldašu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III), the king of the land Elam. [In] the course of my campaign, [I conquered] the city Bīt-Imbî, a city upon which the land Elam relied. [(As for) the pe]ople living inside it, who had not come out and inquired about the well-being of [my] royal majes[ty, I killed (them)]. I cut off their [he]ads, sliced off [th]eir lip[s], (and) [took (them) to Assyria] to be a spectacle for the people of m[y] land.…

Source: 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/Q007544/

Why it matters

Records Ashurbanipal's sack of Bīt-Imbî and the mutilation of its defenders — visceral first-person evidence of the psychological terror tactics underpinning Assyrian imperial expansion into Elam.

Transliteration

⸢e-li ep?-še?-ti⸣ an-⸢na?⸣-[a]-⸢ti e⸣-gug lìb-bi iṣ-ṣa-ru-⸢uḫ⸣ [ka-bat-ti]1 / ⸢ad⸣-ke ERIM.ḪI.A.MEŠ-ia EDIN mum-man-al-daš MAN KUR.ELAM.MA.KI aṣ-⸢ba-ta⸣ [KASKAL] / [ina] ⸢me⸣-ti-iq ger-ri-ia ⸢URU⸣.É-mim-bi-i URU tu-kul-ti KUR.ELAM.⸢MA⸣.[KI ak-šud] / ⸢UN⸣.MEŠ a-šib lìb-bi-šú šá la ⸢ú⸣-ṣu-nim-ma la iš-a-lu šu-lum ⸢LUGAL⸣-[ti-ia a-nir] / ⸢SAG⸣.DU.MEŠ-šú-nu ak-kis NUNDUM.[MEŠ-šú]-nu ap-ru-uʾ a-na…

Scholarly note

Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007544.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394708). source
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/Q007544/.

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