Position in chronology
Sargon II 2002
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 2(1) Sîn-aḫu-uṣur, grand vizier (and) favorite (brother) of Sargon (II), king of the world, king of Assyria, governor of Babylon, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad, favorite of the great gods, completely constructed this house from its foundations to its crenellations. (5) He invited the great gods who dwell in Assyria and in this city (to come) inside it, and he offered before them pure sacrifices. In their steadfast, pure hearts they continually blessed Sargon and spoke that which is good concerning Sîn-aḫu-uṣur, his favorite brother.
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 2 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Spotted an error? Suggest a correction — confirmed corrections feed the engine's knowledge base.
Transliteration
mdEN.ZU-ŠEŠ-ú-ṣur LÚ.SUKKAL.MAḪ ta-lim mMAN-GIN MAN kiš-šat1 / MAN KUR aš-šur.KI GÌR.NÍTA KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI MAN KUR EME.GI₇ u URI.KI / ⸢mi⸣-gir DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ É šá-a-šú TA UŠ₈-šú EN gaba-dib-bi-šú / ir-ṣi-ip ú-šak-lil DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ a-ši-bu-ut / KUR aš-šur.KI ù URU šá-a-šú ina qer-bi-šú iq-re-ma UDU.SISKUR.MEŠ / KÙ.MEŠ ma-ḫar-šú-un iq-qí ina ku-un lìb-bi-šú-nu KÙ mMAN-GIN / ik-tar-ra-bu-ma šá md30-PAP-PAP ŠEŠ ta-lim-me-šú iq-bu-u šá ṭa-bu-uš2
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sargon II, edited by Grant Frame (RINAP 2, 2021). ORACC text Q006644.
Attribution
Image: Created by Grant Frame and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, 2019. Adapted for RINAP Online by Joshua Jeffers and Jamie Novotny and lemmatized by Giulia Lentini, Nathan Morello, and Jamie Novotny, 2019, for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation-funded OIMEA Project at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0..
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/Q006644/.
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.