Position in chronology
Ashurnasirpal II 047
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) (The god) Aššur, great lord, king of all of [the great gods, ...]; lord of the lands, the god Enlil, exalted one, [father of the gods, ...]; the god Ea, king of the apsû, lord of wisdom (and) understanding, [...]; the god Adad, the exceptionally strong, lord of abundance, [...]; the god Šamaš, judge of heaven and netherworld, commander of [all]; (5b) [the great gods] who decree the destinies (and) make great the [(...) kingship of] Ashurnasirpal (II), attentive ruler, worshipper of the great gods, [ferocious dragon], conqueror of cities and the mountains, to the[ir] full extent, [king of…
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/Q004501/
Why it matters
Opens with the full Assyrian divine council — Aššur, Enlil, Ea, Adad, Šamaš — granting Ashurnasirpal II his kingship, illustrating how 9th-century Assyrian royal ideology fused theology with conquest legitimacy.
Transliteration
AN.ŠÁR EN GAL-ú MAN ⸢gim⸣-[rat DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ ...] / EN KUR.KUR.MEŠ dEN.LÍL ṣi-i-ru [a-bu DINGIR ...] / dé-a MAN ABZU EN né-me-qi ḫa-⸢si⸣-[si ...] / dIŠKUR geš-ru šu-tu-ru EN ḪÉ.⸢GÁL⸣ [...] / dšá-maš DI.KU₅ AN-e u KI-tim mu-ma-ʾe-er ⸢gi⸣-[im-ri DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ] / mu-šim-mu dNAM.MEŠ mu-šar-bu-u [MAN-ut (...)] / mAŠ-PAP-A NUN na-aʾ-du pa-liḫ DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ ⸢UŠUMGAL⸣ [ek-du] / ka-šid…
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 Q004501.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394660). 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/Q004501/.
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