Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 138
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1') [...] ... [... he (Ummanaldašu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III))] abandoned [...] and fled [...] that [riv]er as [his] defen[sive position ...] to f[ight with me ... (5´) ...] was heaped up [lik]e a mountain [...] of the lands, who does not revere [...]. (7') [...] Ummanaldašu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III) [...] safel[y ...]
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Why it matters
Narrates Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III's flight across a river from Assyrian forces — fragmentary but direct Assyrian testimony to the campaign that effectively ended Elamite royal resistance by the 640s BCE.
Transliteration
[...] x x x (x) [...] / [... ú]-maš-šir-ma in-na-[bit ...] / [...] ⸢ÍD⸣ šu-a-tu a-na dan-[nu-ti-šú ...] / [...] a-na ⸢ṣa?⸣-[al-ti-ia ...] / [...] x šá-de-e šap-kàt x [...] / [...] ⸢BI?⸣ KUR.KUR la pa-liḫ x [...] / [...] ⸢m⸣um-man-al-da-⸢si⸣ x [...] / [...] šal-mì-⸢iš⸣ [...] / [...] x [...]
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007546.
Attribution
Image: BM 123403 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P422484). 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/Q007546/.
Related tablets
Related sources
An early example of administrative writing from Uruk. Its fragmentary numerical entries and commodity signs document record-keeping during the formative period of writing.
An early witness to systematic administrative notation at Kish. Its signs and numerals can be catalogued, but that does not establish a full translation or prove that it is the world's first writing.
An early surviving historical monument that joins named rulers, a territorial dispute and religious oaths. It shows how a city-state turned victory into a lasting public claim, without establishing that this was the first recorded conflict.