Read Chronology Themes Tablets Engine About

Read
Chronology
Themes
Tablets
Engine
About

Sumerian · Book

Reading the tablets…

Sumerian · Book

The first cities. The first stories. Still here, written in clay.

Explore

Begin reading
Chronology
Themes
Tablet collection
Dossiers

The project

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

Resources

Provenance & ethics
Privacy policy
Terms of use
llms.txt
Sitemap

Independent scholarship · No academic affiliation or institutional funding.

Tablet imagery credited per item.

Home
All tablets

The corpus

All tablets.

Every tablet in the corpus — sortable by date, title or period; filterable by theme and period. Find a name, follow a period, or explore a subject through the records it left behind.

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

1,622 of 102,257 tablets · 2 filters activeClear filters

1501–1550 of 1622

Page 31 / 33

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 217

Ashurbanipal's account of sacking Elam (~646 BCE): the deliberate destruction of temples, secret groves, and royal tombs attests the ideological use of sacral desecration as a weapon of imperial subjugation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·

Neo-Assyrian

RINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 218

Fragmentary Sargonid royal inscription invoking a lineage from Shalmaneser III to Ashurbanipal: one of dozens of RINAP 5 witnesses reconstructing how late Assyrian kings crafted dynastic legitimacy in monumental text.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 219

Records Ashurbanipal's gold-clad renovation of Marduk's canopy and throne-dais in Babylon, documenting Assyrian investment in Babylonian cult as a deliberate tool of imperial legitimation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 221

Preserves Ashurbanipal's petition to Šamaš, Adad, Nabû, and Marduk to designate his successor by divine oracle — direct evidence that late Sargonid succession was framed as a matter of celestial appointment, not dynastic right alone.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 222

Records Ashurbanipal's completion and gilding of Eḫursaggalkurkurra at Aššur, anchoring the temple's mid-7th-century renovation to a named Sargonid king and his building piety toward Marduk and Aššur alike.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 224

Ashurbanipal's hymnic praise of Marduk — invoking his mastery over the Igīgū and Anunnakū — attests Assyrian kings publicly venerating the chief Babylonian deity, a theological diplomacy central to their claim over the south.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 225

Catalogs Marduk's epithets — cosmic judge, holder of heaven's bond, destroyer of the wicked — showing how a 7th-century Assyrian king legitimized power by publicly honoring Babylon's chief god.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 226

Attests Ashurbanipal's direct-speech divine assurance — 'Do not fear, I myself will come to your aid' — the same royal-reassurance formula that recurs in Neo-Assyrian prophecies, linking monumental inscription to oracular tradition.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 227

Dedicatory hymn to Nergal at his cult-seat Emeslam in Cutha, preserving Sargonid royal theology of the plague-god as protector of the obedient king against disease and enemy armies.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 229

Claims Ashurbanipal personally mastered 'all of the scribal arts' — a rare royal self-presentation as literate scholar that underlies his systematic collection of texts at Nineveh.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 230

Records Ashurbanipal's restoration of Emeslam — the temple of Nergal at Cutha — including bricks molded in ebony and musukkanu-wood and scented with crushed aromatics: a concrete window into Sargonid sacred construction ritual.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 231

Equates Babylon with the zodiacal Crab constellation while describing Ashurbanipal's restoration of its tottering foundations — linking Assyrian royal ideology to celestial geography in a rare astro-theological framing of conquest and clemency.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 232

Asserts Ashurbanipal's personal mastery of the scribal arts as a divine gift — one of the clearest royal claims to literacy in the ancient Near East, legitimising his famous library-building programme at Nineveh.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 233

Claims Assyrian sovereignty over territory reached by a journey of 'one month and twenty days into the midst of the sea' — among the most expansive geographical boasts in the surviving Sargonid royal corpus.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 234

Chronicles Ashurbanipal's repeated installation and removal of Elamite client-kings — Ḫumban-nikaš II, Tammarītu, Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III — documenting Assyrian mechanisms for controlling Elam through dynastic manipulation rather than outright annexation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 235

Records Ashurbanipal's sack of Susa and the return of the goddess Nanāya to Eanna after her long Elamite 'captivity' — linking military conquest to the restoration of Babylonian cult.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 236

Attests Nanāya, Uṣur-amāssa, and Urkayītu as divine guarantors of royal legitimacy at Uruk — preserving a local theological formula for kingship otherwise scarcely documented in Sargonid inscriptions.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 237

One of the composite royal inscriptions of Ashurbanipal preserved across multiple manuscript witnesses, attesting the Sargonid titulary 'king of Sumer and Akkad' as a living ideological claim to Babylonian sovereignty.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 238

Records Ashurbanipal's military intervention against a ruler of Qirbit who refused submission — one of the few inscriptions attesting Assyrian punitive campaigns into the Kassite borderlands during his reign.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 239

Preserves Ashurbanipal's three-generation dynastic lineage — son of Esarhaddon, grandson of Sennacherib — a formulaic claim that anchored Sargonid legitimacy in royal inscriptions of the mid-seventh century BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 240

Names Urtaku and Ummanigaš — the Elamite king and his brother whose rivalry Assyria exploited — placing this inscription among the direct royal accounts of Ashurbanipal's Elamite campaigns.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 023

(1) [For the goddess Mul]lis[s]u, exalted ruler, the pre-eminent one among the Igīgū and Anunnakū gods, the most splendid of goddesses, the que[en of que]ens, the Ištar worthy of praise, who is endo[w]ed with sexual charm (and) filled with awe-inspiring radiance, the supreme lady whose lordly majesty is the most outstanding (and) whose divinity is the greatest among the gods of [a]ll settlements, the very competent one, the lady of all things that (are found) in the whole (lit. “territory”) of heav[e]n and netherworld, [the one who holds] the bond of the bright firmament, who[se] place is…

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 024

(1) I conquered, plund[ered, ...] the city Birtu-ša-Adad-rēmanni, of/which [...] the Manneans.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 025

(1) Teumman, <who>, during a loss of (all) reason, said to his son: “Shoot the bow!”

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 027

(1) The head of Teum[man, the king of the land Elam], which a common soldier in my army [had cut off] in the midst of bat[tle]. They dispatched (it) quickly to As[syria] to (give me) the good ne[ws].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 028

(1) Ur[t]aku, an in-law of Teumman who had been struck by an a[rro]w (but) had not (yet) died, called out to an Assyrian to c[ut of]f his (Urtaku’s) own head, saying “Come here (and) cut off (my) head. Carry (it) before the king, your lord, and obtain fame.”

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 029

(1) Itunî, a eunuch of Teumman, the king of the land Elam, whom he (Teumman) insolently sent again and again before me, saw my mighty battle array and, with his iron belt-dagger, cut with his own hand (his) bow, the emblem of his strength.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 031

(1) [Battle line of Ashurbanipal, king of A]ssyria, the one who established the de[feat of the land Elam].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 032

(1) The defeat of the troops of Teumman, the king of [the land Elam], which Ashurbanipal, [great king, strong king], king of the world, king of Assyria, [had brought about] (by inflicting) countless (losses) at (the city) Tīl-Tūba, (and during which) he had cast down the corpses of [his (Teumman’s)] w[arriors].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 033

(1) The fugitive [U]mmanigaš (Ḫumban-nikaš II), a servant who had grasped my feet. When I gave the command (lit. “at the working of my mouth”) in (the midst of) celebration, a eunuch of mine whom [I had] sent (with him) ushered (him) in[to] the land Madaktu and the city Susa and placed him on the throne of Teu[mman, whom] I [had def]eated.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 035

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, [who] with the support of (the god) Aššur and the goddess Ištar, my lords, conquered my [enemies] (and) achieved my heart’s desire. (3b) Rusâ, the king of the land Urarṭu, heard about the mi[gh]t of (the god) Ašš[ur], my [lo]rd, and fear of my royal majesty overwhelmed him and he (then) sent his envoys to me in Arbela, to inquire about my well-being. I made Nabû-damiq (and) Umbadarâ, envoys of the land Elam, stand before them with writing boards (inscribed with) insolent m[es]sages.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 036

(1) (PN₁ and PN₂) uttered grievous blasphemies against (the god) Aššur, the god who created me. I tore out their tongue(s and) flayed them.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 038

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, who by the command of the great gods, achieved his heart’s desires: They paraded before [m]e clothing (and) jewelry, royal appurtenances of Šamaš-šu[ma-u]kīn — (my) unfaithful brother — his palace women, his [eun]uchs, his battle troops, a chariot, a processional carriage, [the ve]hicle of his lordly majesty, every necessity of his palace, as much as there was, (and) people — male and female, young (and) old.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 040

(1) I surrounded, conquered, (and) plundered the city Ḫamanu, a royal city of the land Elam.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 041

(1) I surrounded, conquered, plundered, destroyed, demolished, (and) burned with fire the city Ḫamanu, a royal city of the land Elam.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 042

(1) [...] the city [Bīt]-Bunakku, a [(royal)] city [of the land Elam].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 043

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, who b[y the command of (the god) Aššur and] the goddess Mullissu, achieved his heart’s desires, surro[und]ed (and) conquered the city Din[šarri, a ci]ty of the land Elam. [I brought] out [chariot]s, wagons, horses, (and) mules and I cou[nted] (them) as booty.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 044

(1) I surrounded, conquered, (and) plundered the cit[y] ..., a royal city of the land Elam.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 045

(1) [I surrounded, conquered, destroyed, dem]olished, (and) [burned] with fire [the city ...]tu, a city of the land [Elam].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 046

(1) I, [Ashurbanipal ...] (the god) Ašš[ur ...] (the land) Elam [...].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 047

(1) I, [Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria], who with [the support of (the god) Aššur and the goddess Ištar, (...), conquered his] enem[ies, ...] plu[ndered ...] of [...].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 049

(1) [Ummanaldaš (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III), (the king of the land Elam) who had seen the rage of] the weapon of (the god) Aššur, my lord, [(...) and had returned] from the mountain(s), his place of refuge. [PN, the city rul]er of the city Murubissi (Marubišti), [thought about ... the migh]t of (the god) Aššur, my lord, [and ...]. He seized Ummanaldaš, and [...] brought him before me.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 050

(1) [... who] love his good [d]e[e]ds (lit. “[the] good [d]ee[ds of] his hands”), all of the rulers of the entiret[y of the lands ... — (As for) Tammarītu, Paʾê, (and) Ummanalda]šu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III), kings of the land Elam whom [I] had defeat[ed] with the support of (the god) Aššur and the goddess Mullissu, [...] they [sto]od [...] and (then) they prepared their royal meal with their own hands and had (it) brought [before me].

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 051

(1) [I, Ashurbani]pal, king of the world, king of Assyria, [who with the support of (the god) Aššur and the goddess Ištar], conquered his enemies [..., surrounded (and) conquered the ci]ty Bīt-Luppi. [I brought out the pe]ople living in it, [chariots, wagons], horses, (and) [mules and] counted (them) as [boo]ty.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 052

(1) [...] had incited [(...)] to rebel [against (the god) Aššur and the goddess] Ištar and [he] prepared for battle. At the beginning of his fight, in the city [..., w]ho had encouraged me, a small body of troops [brought about] the defeat of [his] troops. [... t]heir [...], the rest of them who had fled when (they were) defeated ... [...]. They were speaking [as] follows, saying: “Do not be frightened! (The god) Aššur [...].”

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 054

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, for who[m] (the god) Aššur — the king of the gods — (and) the goddess Ištar — the lady of battle — determined a destiny of heroism, [...]: The god Palil, the one who goes before me, let me go triumphantly hunting in the steppe. For pleasure ... [...] I went out. (3b) In the steppe, a widespread place, rag[ing] lions, a ferocious mountain breed, attacked [me and] surrounded the chariot, the vehicle of my royal majesty. By the command of (the god) Aššur (and) the goddess [Ištar], the great gods, my lords, with a single team [harnes]sed to…

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 055

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria — while (carrying out) [my princely] spor[t], they had [a fi]erce [lion] that was born in the steppe (lit. “of its plain”) brought out of a cage and, while on foot, I pierced (it) three times with arrow(s) [(but)] its life did not come to an end. Through the command of the god Palil, the king of the steppe who had generously gr<anted> me power (and) vir[ilit]y, I subsequently stabbed it with my iron belt-dagger [(and)] it laid down (its) life.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 056

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, while enjoying myself on foot, seized a fierce lion that was born in the steppe (lit. “of its plain”) by its ear and, with the support of (the god) Aššur and the goddess Ištar — the lady of battle — pierced its body with the lance that was in my hand.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 057

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, while (carrying out) my princely sport, seized a lion that was born in the steppe (lit. “of its plain”) by its tail and, through the command of the gods Ninurta (and) Nergal, the gods who support me, shattered its skull with the mace that was in my hand.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 058

(1) I, Ashurbanipal, king of the world, king of Assyria, to whom (the god) Aššur (and) the goddess Mullissu have granted outstanding strength, set up the fierce bow of the goddess Ištar — the lady of battle — over the lions that I had killed. I made an offering over them (and) poured (a libation of) wine over them.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

← Previous

1…30 31 32 33