Position in chronology
RIME 4.01.04.05, ex. add18
About this tablet
A royal building inscription of Išme-Dagan, king of Isin (early second millennium BCE), one of many surviving copies stamped or written on bricks. It commemorates two acts of royal piety and power: he exempted the holy city of Nippur — Enlil's beloved city — from taxes and military conscription, and he built the great defensive wall of his capital, Isin. Mesopotamian kings gave their walls ceremonial names, and this one advertises the king's divine backing: 'Išme-Dagan is one of great strength through Enlil.' Such inscriptions were mass-produced propaganda, embedding the king's legacy in the very fabric of his city.
Plain-language summary by the engine — meant as a doorway into the literal translation below.
Written in modern English
I am Išme-Dagan, the mighty king of Isin and ruler of the four corners of the world. When I lifted the tax burden from Nippur — the city Enlil loves best — and released its men from army duty, I built the great wall of my capital, Isin. I named that wall 'Išme-Dagan is mighty in strength through Enlil.'
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — our engine
Our engineIšme-Dagan, mighty man, king of Isin, king of the four quarters, when he cancelled the tribute-obligation of Nippur, the beloved city of Enlil, and exempted its troops from military service, he built the great wall of Isin. The name of that wall is: "Išme-Dagan is one of great strength through Enlil."
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
isz-me-da-gan nita kal-ga lugal i3-si-in-na lugal an-ub-da limmu2-ba-ke4 u4 nibru iri ki-ag2 en-lil2-la2 gu2-bi mu-un-du8 erin2-bi kaskal-ta ba-ra-an-zi-ga-a bad3-gal i3-si-in-na mu-un-du3 bad3-ba isz-me-da-gan en-lil2-da a2-an-gal mu-bi-im
Scholarly note
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Early Old Babylonian (ca. 2000-1900 BC)) — RIME 4.01.04.05, ex. add18. This record has no stored scholarly English translation; the existence of published translations has not been checked; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Attribution
Image: Kress 001 (private: anonymous, Germany) — from uncertain (mod. uncertain) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P272788). source
Translation excerpted from engine:claude-fable-5 (2026-07-12/v7-evolved).
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