Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 046
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 4(1) [The palace] of Esarha[ddon, great king, migh]ty [king], king of the world, [king of Assyria, descen]dant of Sennach[erib, great king, migh]ty [king], king of the world, [king of Assyria, ...] ... [...] (r 1') [...] which/that ... [... of]fi[cial ...] ... which/that [...]
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Why it matters
Survives only in fragments, yet adds one manuscript witness to the corpus of Esarhaddon's royal titulary, helping scholars reconstruct how this king broadcast his legitimacy across the Assyrian heartland.
Transliteration
[É].⸢GAL šá⸣ mAN.ŠÁR-⸢ŠEŠ⸣-[SUM.NA LUGAL GAL-ú] / [LUGAL dan]-nu LUGAL ŠÚ [LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI] / [lip]-⸢lip⸣ md⸢30-ŠEŠ.MEŠ⸣-[SU LUGAL GAL-ú] / [LUGAL dan]-nu LUGAL ŠÚ [LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI] / [...] x x x x BE [...] / [...] ⸢šá⸣ x x x [...] / [...] ⸢LÚ.SAG⸣ [...] / [...]-ri ⸢šá⸣ [...]
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003275.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P238702). 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/Q003275/.
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.