Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 236
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5Obverse completely missing One or more columns completely missing (r i' 1') [whom] the goddesses N[anāya], Uṣur-a[māssa], (and) Urkay[ītu] nom[inate] for ruling ov[er the land] and [people], (r ii' 1') [(That which is written upon) the inscribed object]s [of U]ruk. Blank
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
Attests Nanāya, Uṣur-amāssa, and Urkayītu as divine guarantors of royal legitimacy at Uruk — preserving a local theological formula for kingship otherwise scarcely documented in Sargonid inscriptions.
Transliteration
d⸢na⸣-[na-a] / dú-⸢ṣur-a⸣-[mat-sa] / dUNUG.KI-a-⸢a⸣-[i-tu] / a-na be-⸢lut⸣ [KUR] / ù [UN.MEŠ] / i-⸢nam⸣-[bu-ú MU-šú] / [(ša? ina? UGU?) MU.SAR?]-e / [ša?] ⸢UNUG⸣.KI
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q008324.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P400254). 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/Q008324/.
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.