Position in chronology
RINBE 2, Neriglissar 03, ex. 05
About this tablet
A fragment of an official building inscription of Neriglissar, king of Babylon (559–556 BCE), from Babylon itself. In the surviving portion the king boasts of adorning something — probably cult fixtures at Esagil, Marduk's great temple — with silver and radiant ornament, and then of a major engineering feat: the Euphrates had shifted away from the temple precinct, making water hard to draw, so he traced the river's ancient course and brought its waters back alongside Esagil, reinforcing the work with bitumen and baked brick. It is a vivid record of how Babylonian kings combined piety with large-scale hydraulic engineering.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
The readable part says: the king decorated something in cast silver, clothing it in shining ornament and divine splendor. Then he turns to the Euphrates, 'the river of abundance,' which since the beginning had flowed straight past the temple Esagil. But by his day its waters had drifted away from Esagil's edge — too far for people to draw water. So he searched out the river's old channel and brought its waters back to the temple's border, just as in ancient times, restoring what an earlier king had built, sealing the construction with bitumen. The beginning and end of the text are lost.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engine(beginning broken) [...] ... lordship(?) ... [...] [... of a] former [king(?)] ... he cast/fashioned in silver [...] [...] shining ..., with ornament and awe-inspiring radiance I clothed it. [...] the Euphrates, the river of abundance, which from its creation [... flowed] straight past Esagil — its massive waters, [... in the days(?)] of a former king, its waters from the border of Esagil [...] had receded (too far) for the drawing of water. [...] I sought out its ancient site, and [...] its waters as of old [... to the bor]der of Esagil I directed [straight]. The [...] which a former king had [...], [... I ...]ed, and with bitumen [and baked brick ...] (remainder broken)
Our translation engine — Fable 5. Reads the photo, translates the cuneiform, and writes a plain-language interpretation. See methodology for limits.
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Transliteration
[...]-lu#-t,u3# x [...] [...]-ah#-ri i-na _ku3-babbar_ ip-ti#-x x x [x x] nam#-ru ti-iq-nim me2-lam-mu u2-sza-al-bi-isz-szu# [x] _buranun# i7 he2-gal2_-lam sza isz-tu bi-na-a-ti-szu [...] e2#-sag-il2 szu-te-szu-ru mu-u2#-szu ga-ap-szu-ti# [...]-le#-e _lugal_ ma-ah-ri mu-u2-szu a-na i#-te-e e2-sag-il2# [x x]-u2# i-re-e-qu a-na sa-a-bu [x x] a#-sza-ar-szu la-bi-ri asz-te#-e'-e-ma# [x x]-ak# me2-e-szu ki-ma la#-bi-ri-im#-[x] [...]-te#-e e2-sag-il2 usz-te#-te#-[x x] _[...]-e3#_ sza _lugal_ ma-ah-ri u2-sza#-ah#-[...] [...]-ri#-ma# i-na ku#-up#-ri# [...]
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — RINBE 2, Neriglissar 03, ex. 05. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: VA Bab 01974 (Vorderasiatisches Museum, Berlin, Germany) — from Bābili (mod. Babylon) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P518476). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
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.