Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 037
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 4(1') [...] he returned [... which she] had entrusted to me [... she] stood at my side ... [...] she brought about [...] and poverty [... (5′) ...] the great gods, as many as there are, [... m]e — Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, gover[nor of Babylon, ... of] the great gods, king of the upper and lo[wer] land(s) — [... in the] womb of (my) mother, who bore me, [... to ex]ercise the lordship of all lands ... [... (10′) ...] they invoked the heart of the god Aššur and ... [...] Kush, which [none] of [my] ancestors [...] they were sending (but) not returning [...] ... a place where no bird flaps [its…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Why it matters
Attests Esarhaddon's claim to divine election from the womb and his conquest of Kush — the latter a campaign no Assyrian king before him had achieved — in the rhetorical idiom of Neo-Assyrian royal self-legitimation.
Transliteration
[...] ⸢i-tur⸣ [...] / [...] ⸢tu⸣-tak-ki-la-an-ni-ma [...] / [...] ⸢ta⸣-zi-iz ina i-di-ia a-ma-⸢ta⸣ [...] / [...] ù ma-ku-ú tu-šá-li-⸢ka⸣ [...]1 / [...] DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ ma-la ba-šu-ú x [...] / [... ia]-⸢ti⸣ maš-šur-PAP-SUM.NA LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI GÌR.⸢NÍTA⸣ [KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI ...] / [...] DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.<MEŠ> LUGAL KUR e-li-tum ù ⸢šap⸣-[li-tum ...]2 / [... ina] ⸢ŠÀ⸣.TÙR a-ga-ri-in-ni a-lit-ti-⸢ia⸣…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003266.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P424684). source
Translation excerpted from Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003266/.
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