Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 050
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 4(1') [...] ... [... the Enlil] of the gods, [... the sun] of all of the people, [... eternal royal seed, precious] offspring of Baltil (Aššur) [... who] sets straight [...] ... [...]
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
Preserves fragmentary titulary of Esarhaddon equating the king with Enlil and the solar deity — stock epithets that grounded Assyrian royal ideology in cosmic, not merely political, authority.
Transliteration
[...] x u x [...] / [... dEN.LÍL].LÁ DINGIR.⸢MEŠ⸣ [...] / [... dUTU]-šú kiš-šat UN.⸢MEŠ⸣ [...] / [... NUMUN LUGAL-ti da-ru]-u NUNUZ bal-til.⸢KI⸣ [...] / [...] ⸢muš-te⸣-šir [...] / [...] x x [...]1
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003279.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P398451). 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/Q003279/.
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.