Position in chronology
Sennacherib 1016
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') [...] ... [...] ... [...] I cut free and [...] of my lord [...] grass [...] herds of horses (and) donkeys [...] I made dwell (as safely) as on a meadow and [...] ... prospered [...] pastures, [...] he was deeply cutting [... on]agers (and) gazelles [...] their mountain [...] turtle(s) [... la]id eggs [...] my palatial halls [...] I divided [...] ... [...] I made stand (there), and (then) they grew very thick and tall. (19') [...] ... two bull colossi of wh[ite] limestone [...] the gate of that watercourse, I had erected. [...] the strong wave and wild tide that rise up and [...]…
Source: Grayson, A.K. & Novotny, J. 2012–2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC). RINAP 3. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/Q004072/
Why it matters
Records Sennacherib's reshaping of the Assyrian landscape — restoring pasturelands, resettling animals, and erecting white limestone bull colossi at a watercourse gate — documenting the royal ideology that equated hydraulic and architectural mastery with divine order.
Transliteration
[...] x x / [...] x x RA / [...] ab-tuq-ma / [...] EN-ia / [...] x šá-am-⸢mu?⸣ / [...] ⸢sa-kul⸣-lat ANŠE.KUR.RA.MEŠ ANŠE.MEŠ / [...] ⸢par⸣-ga-niš ú-šar-bi-iṣ-ma / [...] x (x) ⸢i⸣-še-er / [...] ri-ti / [...]-ri i-ḫa-du-ud / [... ANŠE].EDIN.NA.MEŠ MAŠ.DÀ.MEŠ / [...] šad-da-šú-un / [...] x še-lep-pu-u / [... id]-du-u e-ru-tú / [...] ⸢É⸣.GAL.MEŠ-ia / [...] ⸢ú-za-ʾi-iz?⸣ / [...] x x x [x (x)] x x (x)…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sennacherib, edited by A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny (RINAP 3, 2012–2014). ORACC text Q004072.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394553). source
Translation excerpted from Grayson, A.K. & Novotny, J. 2012–2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC). RINAP 3. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/Q004072/.
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