Position in chronology
Shalmaneser IV 3
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [To the god Aššur, the father of] the gods, [the great lord who dwells in Eḫursaggalkurkurra], his great temple, may it be [extremely] good! (4) [To the gods of destinies (and)] the goddesses [who dwell in Eḫursaggalkurkurr]a, their great temple, may it be [extremely] good! (7) [To the gods of destinies (and)] the goddesses, [who dwell in the city Aššur], in their great [temple], may it be [extremely] good! (10) It is [extremely] good with [Shalmaneser (IV)/Aššur-dān (III)], the holy priest, [the servant who worships your great divinity], and with [his] military forces. (13) No…
Source: Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q006689/
Why it matters
A royal prayer formula addressed to Aššur and the gods of Eḫursaggalkurkurra, attesting the liturgical language by which Shalmaneser IV legitimised his reign during the poorly documented mid-eighth-century Assyrian 'interlude'.
Transliteration
[...] DINGIR.MEŠ / [...] é-kur-ri-šú GAL-e / [...] lu-ú šùl-mu / [...] dINANNA.MEŠ / [... é-ḫur-sal-gal-kur-kur]-⸢ra⸣ é-kur-ri-šú-nu GAL-e / [...] lu-ú šùl-mu / [...] dINANNA.MEŠ / [...]-šú-nu GAL-e / [...] lu-ú šùl-mu / [...] ⸢SANGA?⸣ el-⸢li?⸣ / [...] u KARAŠ-[šú] / [...] šùl-[mu] / [...] e-te-[x] / [...] x-šu ad-x-[x] / [...] x x [x] / [...] ⸢ša⸣ pet-ḫal-li / [...] de-e-ku / [... mIGI]-d*aš-šur-la-mur / [...] ú-še-bi-la / [... LÚ].tur-ta-ni na-ṣu
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of an Assyrian king, published in the Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online project (RIAo). Translation reproduced from the ORACC edition. ORACC text Q006689.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P414139). source
Translation excerpted from Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q006689/.
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