Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Ashurnasirpal II 060

~875 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·Q004514

About this tablet

A fragment of a royal inscription of Ashurnasirpal II, the ninth-century BCE Assyrian king who ruled from his capital at Kalhu (modern Nimrud). The surviving phrases — 'the lands,' 'unto the sea,' 'mighty king,' 'temple of the god' — are all stock elements of Assyrian royal titulary and building inscriptions, boasting of the king's far-reaching dominion and pious works. The closing word 'Lady' (Sumerian NIN) likely introduces a goddess, possibly Ishtar, who was a central patron deity in Ashurnasirpal II's royal ideology. The tablet is badly broken and too fragmentary to reconstruct a continuous narrative, but it is a typical product of the prolific Assyrian scribal tradition of commemorating royal deeds.

Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.

Translation · reference

Low confidence
[...] ... [...] / [...] the lands [...] / [... u]nto the sea [...] / [...] ... mighty king ... [...] / [...] ... temple of the god ... [...] / [...] Lady [...]

Source: engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation)

Translation · AI engine

read from photo
Low confidence
[...] ... [...] / [...] the lands [...] / [... u]nto the sea [...] / [...] ... mighty king ... [...] / [...] ... temple of the god ... [...] / [...] Lady [...]
5 uncertain terms
  • MAN dan-nuStandard Neo-Assyrian royal epithet šarru dannu, 'mighty king'; appears in nearly all Ashurnasirpal II inscriptions. The exact sign grouping cannot be fully confirmed from the photo at this resolution.
  • A.AB.BASumerian logogram for 'sea' (tâmtu in Akkadian); in royal inscriptions typically refers to the Mediterranean or Persian Gulf as the limit of conquest. Cannot verify from photo.
  • KUR.KUR.MEŠPlural of KUR ('land/mountain'); standard formula in Assyrian royal epithets meaning 'all the lands.' Consistent with a fragment of royal titulary or annalistic text.
  • NINSumerian 'lady/mistress'; project glossary notes application to Inanna/Ishtar. In Ashurnasirpal II inscriptions, NIN most commonly refers to Ishtar (Assyrian Šarrat, 'queen'). The line is too broken to determine which deity is meant.
  • É DINGIR'Temple of the god' (bīt ili); a common phrase in building inscriptions. Which deity's temple is referenced cannot be determined from the surviving fragment.
Reasoning ↓

The photograph shows a small, triangular terracotta fragment approximately 4–5 cm across (scale bar visible at bottom). The obverse (top-centre image) displays several rows of cuneiform wedges in a warm red-brown clay; the surface is moderately well-preserved in the upper half but increasingly worn and chipped toward the broken lower and right edges. I can discern groups of vertical and horizontal wedges consistent with the signs KUR (mountain/land determinative), and what may be a MAN (LUGAL, 'king') sign group in the fourth line area, broadly matching the transliteration's MAN (šarru, king). The A.AB.BA ('sea') sign cluster in line 3 cannot be confidently isolated from the photo at this resolution. The reverse (middle and lower images) is nearly blank or uninscribed, carrying only the museum accession labels (BM 122680, 1930-8-5,11). The left and right-edge views show no additional inscribed faces. The transliteration supplied is minimal and heavily restored with lacunae, consistent with the physical fragment size visible in the photo. Photo and transliteration are broadly in agreement; no clear discrepancies detected, but most individual signs cannot be verified at this resolution.

Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-12/v4-interpretation · May 12, 2026 · 3501 in / 926 out tokens

Why it matters

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BCE), preserved in the RIAo corpus as a witness to the formulaic and historical record of early Neo-Assyrian kingship.

Transliteration

[...] x x [...] / [...] KUR.KUR.MEŠ [...] / [... a]-⸢di⸣ A.AB.BA [...] / [...] x MAN dan-nu x [...] / [...] x É DINGIR x [...] / [...]-a ⸢NIN⸣ [...]

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 Q004514.

Attribution

Image: BM 122680 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P422453). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-sonnet-4-6 (2026-05-12/v4-interpretation).

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