Position in chronology
Sennacherib 094
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 3(1) Sennacherib, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, had the (inner) wall and outer wall of Nineveh built anew and raised as high as mountain(s).
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 3 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Why it matters
Attests Sennacherib's monumental rebuilding of Nineveh's double circuit of walls, the physical infrastructure that transformed the city into the definitive capital of the late Assyrian empire.
Transliteration
md30-PAP.MEŠ-SU MAN GAL-u MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ / MAN KUR aš-šur BÀD u šal-ḫu-u ša NINA.KI / eš-šiš ú-še-piš-ma u-zaq-qir ḫur-šá-niš
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sennacherib, edited by A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny (RINAP 3, 2012–2014). ORACC text Q003568.
Attribution
Image: BM 090371 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P427984). 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/Q003568/.
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.