Position in chronology
Sargon II 053
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 2(1) Sargon (II), king of the world, built a city (and) named it Dūr-Šarrukīn. He constructed inside it its palace that has no equal.
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 2 — scholar edition (ORACC).
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Why it matters
Sargon II's own account of founding Dūr-Šarrukīn (modern Khorsabad) anchors the date and royal ideology behind one of antiquity's few purpose-built capital cities, completed c. 706 BCE.
Transliteration
mMAN-GI.NA lugal ki-šár-ra / uru an-dù URU.BÀD-MAN-GIN1 / mu-bi bí-in-sa₄-a / é-gal-bi gaba-ri nu-tuku2 / šà-bi-ta mu-un-na-dím
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sargon II, edited by Grant Frame (RINAP 2, 2021). ORACC text Q006534.
Attribution
Image: BM 090232 (British Museum, London, UK) — from uncertain (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P427860). source
Translation excerpted from Frame, G. 2021. The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (721–705 BC). RINAP 2. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap2/Q006534/.
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