Read Chronology Themes Tablets Engine About

Read
Chronology
Themes
Tablets
Engine
About

Sumerian · Book

Reading the tablets…

A curated narrative reconstruction of humanity's first great civilization, sourced from the tablets themselves. Open scholarship, beautifully accessible.

The site

About the project The engine Dossiers FAQ Methodology Sources & licensing Provenance & ethics Contact & support

Legal

Independent scholarship · No academic affiliation · No institutional funding · Tablet imagery attributed per item via CDLI, ETCSL, ORACC, Wikimedia, and public museum collections.

Home
All tablets

The corpus

All tablets.

Every tablet in the corpus — sortable by date, title or period; filterable by theme and period. Use the controls below or change the URL parameters directly.

Sort

Oldest first Newest first Title (A–Z)By period

Theme

Religion & Myth Law Economy Astronomy & Mathematics Daily Life Writing & Literature

Period

Ubaid Uruk Period Early Dynastic Akkadian Empire Ur III · Neo-Sumerian Old Babylonian Old Assyrian Middle Babylonian Middle Assyrian Neo-Assyrian Neo-Babylonian Achaemenid Persian

Source

Editorial Sumerian literature Sumerian royal Assyrian royal Assyrian archives

8,223 of 102,257 tablets · 4 filters activeClear filters

6351–6400 of 8223

Page 128 / 165

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1005

Attests Esarhaddon's claim to dual sovereignty as king of Assyria and governor of Babylon, while recording his restoration of Emašmaš — the temple of Ištar at Nineveh — as an act of filial and divine legitimation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-Assyrian

RINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1007

Preserves Esarhaddon's claim to have uprooted Kushite power from Egypt (~671 BCE) and reset the region under Assyrian-appointed rulers — direct royal testimony to the conquest that briefly made Assyria an African as well as Asian empire.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 101

Esarhaddon's self-presentation as chosen simultaneously by Aššur, Nabû, Marduk, Sîn, Anu, and Ištar reflects his calculated effort to legitimise rule across both Assyrian and Babylonian religious traditions after his controversial succession.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1010

Esarhaddon claims to have restored 60,000 sheep and goats — sacred herds of Ištar and Nanāya scattered under Sargon II — to Uruk, documenting Assyrian kings' use of temple-livestock restitution as a tool of southern Babylonian legitimation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1011

Preserves Esarhaddon's self-presentation as divinely sanctioned restorer — reversing capital sentences, returning plunder, and resettling displaced populations — within a hymnic frame that fuses royal law and divine mythology.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1012

Attests Esarhaddon's intervention in Urarṭu and his installation of a throne-claimant whose name ends in -šuma-iškun, fragmentary evidence for Assyrian proxy rule on its northern frontier ca. 675 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1013

Attests Esarhaddon's rebuilding of an akītu-house and assertion of dual kingship over Assyria and Babylon, linking cultic restoration to royal legitimacy in a period of deliberate reconciliation after his father Sennacherib's sack of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1014

One of the preserved royal inscriptions of Esarhaddon (RINAP 4, Q003386), whose composite manuscript tradition helps reconstruct the rhetorical and titulary conventions of seventh-century Assyrian kingship.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1017

A fragmentary royal inscription of Esarhaddon (~675 BCE) preserving traces of a military muster and invocation of Ištar, adding a damaged but datable witness to Assyrian royal self-presentation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1018

Preserves fragmentary traces of Esarhaddon invoking divine sanction from Aššur himself — attesting the theological grammar by which Neo-Assyrian kings legitimised their rule in royal inscriptions.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1019

Chronicles Esarhaddon's capture of Memphis (~671 BCE) — the only Assyrian royal inscription to record a reigning king's conquest of the Egyptian capital, marking the empire's greatest territorial reach.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1020

Attests Esarhaddon's ideological program of rebuilding Babylon — destroyed by his father Sennacherib — by relocating the divine births of Bēl, Bēltīya, and Ea to Aššur, rewriting Babylonian theology in Assyrian terms.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 104

Esarhaddon frames his restoration of Babylon by cataloguing the bad omens that condemned a previous king — making this one of the clearest surviving examples of Assyrian rulers using omen-lore to legitimise regime change.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 109

Esarhaddon legitimises his reign by casting himself as the gods' chosen restorer of Babylonian shrines and avenger of Akkad — direct ideological response to his father Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon in 689 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 116

Esarhaddon's justification for Sennacherib's sack of Babylon: the Babylonians themselves broke divine law — selling Esagil's treasures to Elam — so the gods, not Assyria, destroyed the city.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 117

Attests Esarhaddon's claim to have restored neglected shrines and forgotten rites — part of his systematic effort to legitimate rule after his father Sennacherib's sack of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 126

Attests Esarhaddon's restoration of Etemenanki, the great ziggurat of Babylon, framing reconstruction as personal piety toward Marduk — evidence of an Assyrian king actively courting Babylonian religious legitimacy.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 128

Attests Esarhaddon's devotion to Ištar of Nippur — here styled Queen-of-Nippur enthroned in Ebaradurgara — documenting Assyrian royal investment in a Babylonian cult centre during his post-conquest reconciliation policy.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 129

Dedicates a building project to Enlil 'whose command cannot be revoked,' pairing that theological formula with Esarhaddon's full titulary to show how Assyrian kings grounded imperial legitimacy in divine sanction.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 133

Dedicatory inscription to Ištar-of-Uruk in her Eanna temple: attests Esarhaddon's deliberate cultivation of the ancient Sumerian cult centre as a source of royal legitimacy seven centuries after Ur III.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 2003

Issued in the voice of Naqīʾa-Zakūtu, Esarhaddon's mother, this inscription is a rare case of an Assyrian queen mother publicly claiming a share of war spoils and directing conquered peoples to corvée labour in her own name.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 048

Opens with a seven-god invocation — Aššur through Šamaš — that maps the full Assyrian divine hierarchy, anchoring royal authority in cosmic order at the height of Esarhaddon's empire.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianSAA 4

SAA 04 108. Should Esarhaddon Send an Army to a Destination? (PRT 026) [military and political]

(1) [Šam]aš, great lord, [give me a firm positive answer] to what I am asking y[ou]! (2) [Es]arhaddon, king of Assyria, who now is intent on send[ing to the destin]ation of his preference [the troops and armed forces wh]ich are written in this papyrus, and [placed before your great divinity, and (whom) your great divinity knows] — (5) [in accor]dance with the command of your great divinity, Šam[aš], great lord, and your [favor]able decisions, should the subject of this query, [Esarhaddon, king of Assyria], strive and plan? [Should he send] these troops and armed forces to where he wishes? Is…

Esarhaddon 1005

Esarhaddon 1007

Esarhaddon 101

Esarhaddon 1010

Esarhaddon 1011

Esarhaddon 1012

Esarhaddon 1013

Esarhaddon 1014

Esarhaddon 1017

Esarhaddon 1018

Esarhaddon 1019

Esarhaddon 1020

Esarhaddon 104

Esarhaddon 109

Esarhaddon 116

Esarhaddon 117

Esarhaddon 126

Esarhaddon 128

Esarhaddon 129

Esarhaddon 133

Esarhaddon 2003

Esarhaddon 048

SAA 04 108. Should Esarhaddon Send an Army to a Destination? (PRT 026) [military and political]

SAA 04 184. Fragment Mentioning the King’s Illness (CT 54 406) [medical]

SAA 04 202. Dream(?) Seen by Prince Assurbanipal (CT 54 492) [miscellaneous]

SAA 04 289. Is Tammaritu Going to Invade Assyrian Territory? (ABL 1195) [military and political]

SAA 04 321. Is the Rumour of Insurrection against Assurbanipal True? (ABL 1367) [military and political]

SAA 04 322. Will Assurbanipal Survive this Insurrection? (ABL 1368) [military and political]

SAA 04 341. Fragment of a Report Containing Blessings (CT 54 069+) [unclassifiable]

SAA 16 001. Letter to Urtaku, King of Elam (ABL 0918)

SAA 16 006. Reading Letters to the King (CT 53 391)

SAA 16 007. Sealed Order (CT 53 693)

SAA 16 008. Augurs from Hamath (ABL 1346)

SAA 16 009. Fragment Referring to Bel and Offenders (CT 53 351)

SAA 16 011. Fragment Referring to Thrones (CT 53 397)

SAA 16 012. (no title) (CT 53 683)

SAA 16 014. (no title) (ABL 1001)

SAA 16 015. Report on the Cimmerians of Iyaze (ABL 1026+)

SAA 16 016. Cimmerians in Minda (ABL 1161)

SAA 16 017. Report on Kunaya and Kudurru (ABL 1257)

SAA 16 018. Report on the Border of Urarṭu (CT 53 469)

SAA 16 019. (no title) (CT 53 147)

SAA 16 020. Milki-nuri Curses the Crown Prince (CT 53 026)

SAA 16 023. (no title) (ABL 0536)

SAA 16 025. A Broken Chariot Wheel (ABL 0766)

SAA 16 027. Report on Two Women (ABL 1199)

SAA 16 029. Debts of the Governor of Barhalza (ABL 0916)

SAA 16 032. Justice Turned Upside Down (ABL 1250)

SAA 16 033. Partial Duplicate of No. 32 (ABL 1107)

SAA 16 034. Let Me Finish My Father’s Work in Calah (ABL 0885)