Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 059
Written in modern English
Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, dedicates this to the god Nabû — exalted lord of Ezida, his temple inside Nineveh. Ashurbanipal declares himself chosen by Nabû's divine will and credits the god's command with giving him the victory in which he beheaded Teumman, king of Elam, on the battlefield. By that same divine authority, he also defeated Teumman's four successors on the Elamite throne — Ummanigaš, Tammarītu, Paʾê, and Ummanaldašu — and then harnessed all four of them to pull a processional carriage. The inscription breaks off at that point.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1) For the god Nabû, the exalted lord who dwells in Ezida — which is inside Nineveh — his lord: (2b) Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria, the one requested (and) required by his (Nabû’s) great divinity, who, at the issuing of his directive and the giving of his stern order, cut off the head of Teumman, the king of the land Elam, in the clash of battle. (6b) Moreover, by his great command, I defeated Ummanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II), Tammarītu, Paʾê, (and) Ummanaldašu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III), who had exercised kingship over the land Elam after Teumman, and (then) harnessed them to a processional carriage,…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Why it matters
Credits Nabû's divine command for Ashurbanipal's defeat of four successive Elamite kings — including Teumman's beheading at the Battle of Til-Tuba — and their humiliation as carriage-pullers, linking Assyrian military conquest explicitly to scribal-god patronage.
Transliteration
a-na dAG EN MAḪ a-šib é-zi-da / šá ŠÀ NINA.KI EN-šú mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A MAN KUR AŠ1 / i-riš-ti ḫi-šiḫ-ti DINGIR-ti-šú GAL-ti / šá ina šá-kan UMUŠ-šú u SUM ur-ti-šú DUGUD-ti / ina mit-ḫu-ṣi BAD₅.BAD₅ KUD-su SAG.DU mte-um-man / MAN KUR.ELAM.MA.KI u mum-man-i-gaš mtam-ma-ri-tú2 / mpa-ʾe-e mum-man-al-daš šá EGIR mte-um-man / DÙ-šú MAN-ut KUR.ELAM.KI ina qí-bi-ti-šú GAL-ti / qa-ti KUR-su-nu-ti-ma ina GIŠ.šá…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003758.
Attribution
Image: MS 2180 (Schøyen Collection, Oslo, Norway) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P250840). 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/Q003758/.
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