Skip to content

Read Chronology Themes Tablets Engine About

Menu

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.

Search

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

1,752 of 102,257 tablets · 4 filters activeClear filters

151–200 of 1752

Page 4 / 36

Old Babylonian

RIAo

Šamši-Adad I 2002

(1) The name of [this] lion is “The Drinker of the Blood of the Enemies of Ša[mšī-Adad (I)] by [the Command of] the Goddess [Ištar].” (8) (Belonging to) Eme[urur], (which means) “the temple of gathering together divine powers.”

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1900 BCE·Old AssyrianRIAo

Sargon I 2001

(1) When the divine Sargon (was) vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, Ḫadītum, the wife of Bēlam-nāda, dedicated (this) to the Assyrian Ištar, her lady. She put (the symbol of the) pudendum into (the Ištar temple) for the life of her husband, her (own) life, and the life of her children.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000343, ex. 056

(obverse, fragmentary) 1. [...] ... [...] 2. [When they] offer [(the river with its water)] to you, do not accept it! 3. [When they] offer [(the field with its grain)] to you, do not accept it! 4. "[Give us the corpse] hanging from the peg," say to her! 5. [One of you sprinkle the plant of] life, one [the water of life], over [her] ... 6. [...] ... [...] (remainder broken)

Religion & Myth·Writing & Literature

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000365, ex. 048

Young man, free-born son, ... [in] the mountain, what [...]? Utu, let me speak a word to you — give [your] ear to my word! Let me greet you — may you pay heed to it! In my city a man dies, and the heart is stricken; a man perishes, and [my] heart [is heavy]. I craned my neck over the city wall: corpses floating on the water ... [made the river] overflow [...]. And I too ... [...] — shall it be so for me? [Thus] it shall be. The tallest man ... [cannot stretch to heaven ...] (remainder broken)

Religion & Myth·Daily Life

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000365, ex. 053

(Beginning broken) 1. "[... if today you are going to] enter [the mountains ...], 2. [...] youthful Utu should [know about it from us]. 3. [...] the decisions concerning [the mountains are Utu's business]; 4. the decisions concerning [the mountains] of felled cedar are youthful Utu's — Utu should know about it from us." 5. [Then] Gilgamesh took hold of a white kid; 6. he clasped [a brown] kid, a sacrificial offering, [to his breast]; 7. [in his hand] he held the holy staff before his nose, 8. as he spoke to [Utu of heaven]: 9. "[Utu, I am going to] enter [the mountains] — [be my] helper! 10. […

Religion & Myth·Daily Life

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000365, ex. 058

1. [...] he set [...] toward [...] 2. [By the life of] my own mother, divine [Nin]sun(?), and my [father], holy Lugal[banda]! 3. May I [become again(?)] as if slumbering in wonder(?) on the lap of my own mother Ninsun. 4. For a [second] time he indeed said it to him: 5. By the life of my own mother Ninsun and my [father(?)], holy Lugalbanda! 6. Whether he be a [hu]man, whether he be known(?), whether he be a god [...], 7. my steps that I have set toward the mountains I shall not set back toward the city! 8. The faithful slave, who would soothe(?), who makes life seem sweet, 9. answered his mas…

Religion & Myth·Daily Life

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000561, ex. 004

obverse (fragment, three lines preserved): [A cl]od that has been bathed in water — dust has come into my eyes. A dog, when it gnaws a corpse, its chest heaves up. The great dragon (ušumgal), having smitten heads (i.e. having slain) [...] (remainder broken)

Religion & Myth·Daily Life

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000578, ex. 002

Say to my [brothers]: this is what Ilaba-tah-lugalĝa says: The journey we are going on is long, and the true king, our king, [has pressed on(?)] ... journey [has been added] to journey. We will not be able to ask after our mother. May the day not set upon our neighborhood ... deceitfully(?). 1 sila of salt, 1 [sila of gazi-spice], 1 šagadu-garment — have a courier bring (them) back to me! Our journey is long. It is urgent!

Daily Life·Writing & Literature

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

CDLI Literary 000584, ex. 003

Say to Lugal-ibila: this is what Inim-Inanna says: Do not neglect the Sumerian language! (lit. "do not let your neck fall away from Sumerian") For the second time I am sending someone to you concerning the correct (use of the) language. The youngster who sits before you — do not let him go out of the tablet-house (school)! And furthermore, let no one deceive you with lies. Should he say to you, "Let me go to his (i.e. my) father," until I and you have exchanged word about the agreed sign, [I will keep] sending a man to you. [...] (remainder broken)

Writing & Literature·Daily Life

~1800 BCE·Old BabylonianOur engine

DWJ 2, 019-021

(obverse) To Sîn-magir speak: thus (says) Lugal-gubbani: May Enlil keep you in good health! May the scattered be gathered! The one who(?) had ceased(?) (work) for 2½ ... [broken] ... [illegible] ... (seal legend / closing lines) Lāqīpum(?), gudu-priest of Enlil, the king's contract-agent(?), son of Ninurta-nīšu, servant of Abī-ēšuḫ.

Daily Life·Economy

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Adad-narari I 01

Lists the cities and peoples — Kassites, Gutians, Lullumê, Šubareans — subjugated by Adad-nārārī I, documenting Assyria's territorial expansion toward the Euphrates and into Mitanni's former heartland around 1300 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 06

A building inscription of Adad-nārārī I dedicating a standard to Ištar and invoking Aššur's favour for any future ruler who restores the monument — an early attestation of the Assyrian royal restoration formula that would persist for centuries.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 1001

Attests Adad-nārārī I's campaign into the Lullumê highlands, placing Assyrian military reach into the Zagros within the generation that transformed Assyria from a vassal into an imperial power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 25

Labels booty taken from Naḫur, placing the city within Adad-nārārī I's documented conquests and anchoring his western campaigns in the archaeological record of early Middle Assyrian expansion.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 31

Stamps Adad-nārārī I's ownership of a labūnu-house forecourt: one of the earliest Assyrian royal building inscriptions asserting the "king of the world" titulary that would define imperial rhetoric for centuries.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 35

Records Adad-nārārī I's renovation of the processional avenue at Aššur's temple, anchoring the physical expansion of Assyrian royal piety to a specific monarch at the dawn of the Middle Assyrian kingdom.

Religion & Myth·Writing & Literature

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Adad-narari I 44

A palace inscription of Adad-nārārī I asserting the title 'king of the world' — early epigraphic evidence of Assyrian kings adopting the universal-sovereignty rhetoric previously claimed by Babylonian and Akkadian rulers.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Aššur-bel-kala 01

Attests Aššur-bel-kala's campaign against the land Ḫimme, preserving early Assyrian royal rhetoric of total destruction — flaying, mass deportation, corpse-mounds — that would define the empire's self-presentation for centuries.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Aššur-bel-kala 08

Attests Aššur-bēl-kala's titulature and genealogy — anchoring his reign within the Tiglath-pileser I dynasty — though heavy damage leaves his specific deeds and the presiding eponym unrecoverable.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Aššur-bel-kala 09

Records Aššur-bel-kala crossing the Euphrates twice in one year on goatskin rafts to pursue Aramean and Sutean groups near Mount Lebanon — early evidence of Assyrian military pressure on these semi-nomadic peoples.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Aššur-reša-iši I 02

Records Aššur-rēša-iši I's construction at the Ištar temple in Nineveh, situating this reign within the architectural patronage that defined Middle Assyrian kingship's claim to divine favour from Anu, Enlil, and Ea.

Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Eriba-Adad II 1

Preserves the titulary of Erība-Adad II, attesting the full fourfold royal ideology — king of the world, Assyria, and the four quarters — at the dawn of the Middle Assyrian imperial self-conception.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle BabylonianOur engine

Šamši-Adad IV 1

Documents Šamšī-Adad IV's restoration of the Assyrian Ištar temple at Aššur, anchoring the reign's chronology to a specific eponymy date and establishing the dynastic continuity he claimed from Tiglath-pileser I.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Shalmaneser I 09

Records Shalmaneser I's restoration of the Libūr-šalḫī Gate at Aššur, fixing the king's piety and building programme in the mid-13th century BCE, before Assyria's rise to full imperial power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Shalmaneser I 17

Credits Ištar of Nineveh — not Aššur alone — as the divine force behind Shalmaneser I's campaigns against Šubarû, Lullumê, and Qutû, documenting the goddess's role in mid-13th-century Assyrian royal ideology.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Shalmaneser I 18

Shalmaneser I's titulary here fuses Enlil-derived legitimacy with military conquest across Qutû, Lullumê, and Šubarû, documenting the mid-13th-century BCE consolidation of Assyrian royal ideology in its earliest monumental form.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Tiglath-pileser I 01

Opens with the fullest early pantheon invocation in Tiglath-pileser I's royal corpus, mapping the precise hierarchy — Aššur, Enlil, Sîn, Šamaš, Adad, Ninurta — that legitimised Middle Assyrian imperial kingship.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Tiglath-pileser I 02

Preserves the divine invocation formula of Tiglath-pileser I, naming Aššur, Enlil, Sîn, Šamaš, and Adad as guarantors of Assyrian royal authority — a theological blueprint for Middle Assyrian kingship ideology.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Tiglath-pileser I 10

Attests Tiglath-pileser I's claim to rule 'from Babylon to the Upper Sea of Amurru' — pinning the rhetorical geography of Middle Assyrian imperial ideology to a specific, verifiable territorial horizon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianOur engine

Tiglath-pileser I 12

Lists fourteen conquered cities in the lands of Qumanî and Ḫabḫu — territories whose rulers had withheld tribute from Aššur — supplying rare toponymic evidence for Assyrian expansion into the northern periphery under Tiglath-pileser I.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle BabylonianOur engine

BM 090715

[Mighty] king, king of the four quarters (regions) of heaven (and earth), the Ekišnugal — the ancient temple which, from distant days, had been built (and) had fallen into ruin — he built (it anew) for him (the god). To its (former) place he restored it. Its foundation(s) …

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle BabylonianOur engine

BM 137412

[The king of] the four world quarters — the Ekišnugal, the old temple, which since distant days had been built (and) had fallen into ruin — he built (it) for him (the god), to its (original) place he restored it, its foundation(s) he re-established.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-dan I 1001

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Aššur-dān I, attesting the titulary and self-presentation of a Middle Assyrian king at the threshold of Assyria's rise to imperial power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-dan I 1002

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Aššur-dān I, attesting Assyrian kingship ideology at a period when Middle Assyrian power was consolidating along the middle Tigris.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-nadin-ahhe II 1

Attests the title 'vice-regent of the god Aššur' under a mid-14th-century king, anchoring the ideological formula of divine stewardship that would define Assyrian royal self-presentation for centuries.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 01

Asserts divine election from the womb by Anu, Enlil, and Ea: an early Assyrian articulation of the theological framework that would anchor royal legitimacy for the next six centuries.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 03

Preserves a fragmentary Middle Assyrian royal building inscription invoking Mutakkil-Nusku and Aššur-dān I, offering rare epigraphic testimony to the dynastic sequence and temple-restoration ideology of the 13th-century Assyrian court.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 05

Palace label of Aššur-rēša-iši I, attesting his full titulary — 'designate of Anu, king of the world' — and his three-generation Assyrian royal lineage at a formative moment of Middle Assyrian state-building.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 06

Attests Aššur-rēša-iši I's royal titulary — 'designate of Anu, king of the world' — fixing the ideological vocabulary through which Middle Assyrian kings claimed cosmic authority a generation before Tiglath-pileser I's conquests.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 1002

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Aššur-rēša-iši I, attesting the titulary and ideological self-presentation of the Middle Assyrian crown at a formative moment in empire-building.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 1003

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Aššur-reša-iši I, attesting Assyrian kingship ideology and titulary at the pivotal moment when Assyria was consolidating power after the collapse of Mitanni.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-reša-iši I 1007

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Aššur-reša-iši I, a Middle Assyrian king whose building and military records anchor the chronology of thirteenth-century Assyrian expansion.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Aššur-uballiṭ I 1001

Attests Aššur-uballiṭ I invoking Šamšī-Adad I as a renovating predecessor — one of the earliest Assyrian royal inscriptions to anchor legitimacy in a named earlier king's building piety.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Eriba-Adad II 2

One of the few surviving inscriptions of Eriba-Adad II, attesting his place in the Tiglath-pileser I dynastic line and the standard titulary — 'king of the world, king of Assyria' — used to legitimise Middle Assyrian royal power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle BabylonianRIAo

Šamši-Adad IV 3

Dedicates a restored shrine to Ištar and threatens divine destruction of any future king who neglects it — an early Assyrian formula binding successors to temple maintenance under penalty of dynastic annihilation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Shalmaneser I 1001

A royal inscription of Shalmaneser I (~1300 BCE), one of the textual witnesses documenting Assyrian kingship ideology at the moment the Middle Assyrian state was consolidating its imperial reach.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Shalmaneser I 1002

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Shalmaneser I, whose reign marks the consolidation of Assyrian imperial ambition in the 13th century BCE — though this manuscript is too fragmentary for its specific content to be read.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Shalmaneser I 1003

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Shalmaneser I, attesting the titulary and commemorative language of the Assyrian Middle period before the empire's full expansion.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Shalmaneser I 1004

One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Shalmaneser I, attesting the commemorative and ideological self-presentation of the Middle Assyrian kings at the height of their imperial consolidation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~1300 BCE·Middle AssyrianRIAo

Shalmaneser I 1005

Preserves Shalmaneser I's curse formula invoking Aššur against anyone erasing the royal name — direct evidence of how 13th-century Assyrian kings used divine sanction to protect monumental memory.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

1…3 4 5…36