Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 154
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1') [I conquered ... together with twenty villages, in the distr]ict of the city Ḫ[unnir, (which is) on the border of the city Ḫidalu]. (2') [I placated the mood of the lord of lo]rds. [I carried off to Assyria] its gods, its goddesses, [its possessions, (and) its property]. I devastate[d] an area of sixty [leagues] inside the land Elam [(and) scattered salt (and) cress over them]. (4') (As for) the goddess Nanāya, who 1,535 year[s (ago) became angry and went] to live in the land Ela[m, a place not befitting her], then, at that time (when) she nominated me for ruling over the lands, [she…
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
Records Ashurbanipal's claim that the goddess Nanāya had dwelt in Elam for exactly 1,535 years before choosing him as her liberator — yoking precise dynastic chronology to divine mandate for the Elamite campaigns.
Transliteration
[a-di 20.ÀM URU.MEŠ ina na]-⸢ge-e ša⸣ URU.⸢ḫu?⸣-[un-nir ina UGU mì-iṣ-ri ša URU.ḫi-da-lu ak-šu-ud]1 / [ú-šap-ši-iḫ ka-bat-ti EN EN].⸢EN⸣ DINGIR.MEŠ-šú d15.MEŠ-⸢šú⸣ [NÍG.ŠU-šú NÍG.GA-šú áš-lu-la a-na KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI]2 / ⸢60⸣ [KASKAL.GÍD] ⸢qaq-qa-ru⸣ qé-reb KUR.e-lam-ti ú-šaḫ-⸢rib⸣ [MUN Ú.ZAG.ḪI.LI.SAR ú-sap-pi-ḫa EDIN-uš-šú-un] / dna-na-a ša 1 LIM 5 ME 30.ÀM 5 MU.AN.⸢NA⸣.[MEŠ ta-as-bu-su-ma…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007562.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P394560). 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/Q007562/.
Related tablets
Related sources
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
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.