Position in chronology
Šamši-Adad V 04
Translation · reference
High confidence(1') [(By the command of my great divinity it came about that): ... In order to] save his (Marduk-balāssu-iqbi) (own) life, [he entered the city Nēmetti-šarri (and) you pursued him]. You slaughtered his (people) (and) [took from him his] chariots, [cavalry, (and) battle equipment]. You [pressed] the battle right inside his city (and) [carried out a massacre at its city gate. You cut down his orchards, (and then) destroyed, devastated, (and) burned with fire 2]56 cities in [its] environs. (6') With regard to what you wrote to me, as follows: “[I marched] to the city Dēr. [The city Dēr, the…
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/Q004741/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[...] x x x [...] / [a-na šu-zu]-ub ZI.MEŠ-⸢šú⸣ [...] / [GAZ].⸢MEŠ⸣-šú ta-du-ak GIŠ.⸢GIGIR⸣.[MEŠ-šú ...] / [ina] ⸢qé⸣-reb URU-šú mit-ḫu-ṣu ⸢ta⸣-[sa-kan ...] / ⸢2⸣ ME ⸢56⸣ URU.MEŠ-ni šá li-me-tú-[šú ...] / ša taš-pu-ra-an-ni ma a-na URU.de-⸢e-ri⸣ [...] / ša ki-ma ki-ṣir KUR-e šur-šu-da SUḪUŠ.MEŠ-šú x [...] / ma-a URU šú-a-tum al-te-me ak-ta-šad ma-a [...] / a-di NÍG.GA-šú-nu ma-aʾ-di ma-a NÍG.GA…
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 Q004741.
Attribution
Image: Based on A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (858-745 BC) (RIMA 3), Toronto, 1996. Adapted by Jamie Novotny (2016) and lemmatized and updated by Nathan Morello (2016) for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based 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. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/riao/Q004741/..
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/Q004741/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.