Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 187
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') [...] ... [..., the thir]d (lion), I struck (its) kidneys but did not [...] ... [...], the fourth, I smashed (its) skull and ... [...], the fifth, I cut through its tendon and ... [...]. (5´) With my single, lordly, harnessed team (and) the v[ehicle of my royal majesty], forty minutes after dawn, I [quelled] the fury of eighteen raging lions [...] I threw their corpses opposite one another [into] heaps [...]. I made their blood flow and [...] the vegetation of the steppe like [...]. (9') (At) the place (where) I killed those lions, I ... [...]. This field, which the people of my palace…
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/Q007595/
Why it matters
Records Ashurbanipal's personal tally of eighteen lions killed in a single dawn hunt, anchoring the famous Nineveh lion-hunt reliefs in a contemporary textual account of royal ritual violence.
Transliteration
[...] x x x (x) [...] / [šal]-⸢šú UZU?.ÉLLAG?.MEŠ⸣ am-ḫa-aṣ-ma ul [x x] x x [...] / ⸢re⸣-bu-u muḫ-ḫa am-ḫa-as-su-ma [(x)] ⸢A?⸣ ŠÚ E x [...] / ḫa-an-šú ma-at-nu-šú ú-bat-ti-⸢iq-ma⸣ A RI x [...] / ina 1-et ANŠE.ú-re-e ṣi-mit-ti be-lu-ti-ia ⸢ru?⸣-[kub LUGAL-ti-ia] / 10 UŠ u₄-mu ina a-la-ki ša 18 UR.MAḪ.MEŠ ⸢na⸣-ad-ru-ti uz-za-šú-nu ⸢ú⸣-[šap-ši-iḫ ...]1 / ADDA.MEŠ-šú-nu mé-eḫ-ret a-⸢ḫa-meš ad⸣-di…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007595.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P396350). 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/Q007595/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.