Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 114
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1) [I, Ashurbanipal, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of] Assyria, king of the fo[ur] quarters (of the world); [offspring of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, governor of Babylo]n, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad; [descendant of Sennacherib, king of the world], king of Assyria — (4) [...] of fruit orchards the great gods determined [my] lot [...] they entrusted me with the carrying off of their [plunder ...] they attired my head with awe-inspiring radiance [...] had no rival (lit. “there was no one to rival (me)”). (8) I marched [from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, where the…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Why it matters
Traces Ashurbanipal's conquests 'from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea,' encoding the Assyrian imperial ideology of universal kingship through its titulary and campaign narrative.
Transliteration
[a-na-ku mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A LUGAL GAL-u LUGAL dan-nu LUGAL ŠÚ LUGAL KUR] aš-šur.KI ⸢LUGAL⸣ kib-rat ⸢LÍMMU-tim?⸣ / [È lìb-bi mAN.ŠÁR-PAP-AŠ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI GÌR.NÍTA KÁ.DINGIR].⸢RA⸣.KI LUGAL KUR EME.GI₇ u URI.⸢KI⸣ / [ŠÀ.BAL.BAL md30-PAP.MEŠ-SU LUGAL ŠÚ] LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI / [...]-⸢aḫ⸣ ṣip-pa-a-ti DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ i-ši-mu šim-⸢ti⸣ / [... šal-lat?]-su-nu šá-la-lu ú-mal-lu-u ŠU.II-u-a / [...] nam-ri-ru…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003813.
Attribution
Image: UM 55-21-384 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P257400). 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/Q003813/.
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