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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

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Editorial Sumerian literature Sumerian royal Assyrian royal Assyrian archives

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Page 47 / 56

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 001

Esarhaddon justifies his anomalous succession — youngest son elevated over elder brothers — by attributing the choice directly to Aššur, Šamaš, and both Ištars, revealing how Sargonid kings marshalled divine authority to legitimise politically irregular transfers of power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

Neo-Assyrian

RINAP 4

Esarhaddon 002

Esarhaddon's own account of razing Sidon — a coastal Phoenician power — ca. 677 BCE, documenting Assyrian westward expansion and the king's claim to rule 'from the rising sun to the setting sun.'

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 005

Esarhaddon justifies his irregular succession — youngest son elevated over older brothers — by citing divination omens from Šamaš and Adad, documenting how Sargonid kings used extispicy to legitimize contested royal transitions.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 008

Claims Assyrian boots on the soil of Patušarra — a district near Mount Bikni in the Median salt desert — where no predecessor king had walked, pushing the attested eastern horizon of Esarhaddon's campaigns beyond earlier royal records.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 010

Claims Esarhaddon's simultaneous restoration of Aššur's temple and Babylon's Esagil — the ideological balancing act by which an Assyrian king sought legitimacy in both the north and south after Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 011

Esarhaddon petitions Sîn and Šamaš jointly for long life, abundant heirs, and victory over enemies — placing the moon- and sun-gods at the centre of his dynastic theology in an era when Esarhaddon was aggressively rebuilding Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 012

Records Esarhaddon's restoration of the Aššur temple and manufacture of cult statues for Sîn and Ningal, linking his legitimacy directly to cultic reconstruction after his father Sennacherib's reign.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 015

Records Esarhaddon's claim to have captured the household of Taharqa — wives, concubines, sons — after his Egyptian campaign, corroborating Assyrian dominance over the 25th Dynasty in the 670s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 018

Attests Esarhaddon's restoration of looted divine statues to their sanctuaries and his reinstatement of regular sattukku- and ginû-offerings — cultic amends that legitimised his reign after Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 030

Records Esarhaddon's military campaign into the Sealand against Nabû-zēr-kitti-līšir, son of the famed Merodach-baladan II — linking dynastic Chaldean resistance to Assyrian rule across two generations.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 031

Records Nabû-zēr-kitti-līšir's flight and death in Elam — corroborating evidence for Esarhaddon's suppression of the Sealand rebellion and his subsequent reception of the fugitive Naʾid-Marduk.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 032

Records the flight and violent death of Nabû-zēr-kitti-līšir in Elam as divine punishment for oath-breaking — Esarhaddon's framing of a political rival's fate as gods Aššur and Šamaš enforcing sacred law.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 033

Records Esarhaddon's demand that the kingdom of Šubria surrender Assyrian fugitives — deserters, oath-breakers, and criminals — foreshadowing the punitive campaign he launched against Šubria around 674 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 034

Records Esarhaddon's tenth campaign toward Kush and Egypt — the Assyrian conquest of Egypt in 671 BCE — and his administrative reorganization of a divided province, attesting the empire's dual reach into Africa and the Near East.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 036

Preserves Esarhaddon's account of a desert march near the Brook of Egypt — waterless terrain, vipers, and divine storm-signs — documenting how Assyrian kings framed military logistics as proof of divine favor.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 037

Attests Esarhaddon's claim to divine election from the womb and his conquest of Kush — the latter a campaign no Assyrian king before him had achieved — in the rhetorical idiom of Neo-Assyrian royal self-legitimation.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 038

Attests Esarhaddon's restoration of Babylonian lunar cult — Sîn, Ningal, Nusku, and Nannar named together — linking Assyrian royal authority to the reorganisation of divine rites after Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 039

Preserves Esarhaddon's account of wounding the Kushite pharaoh Taharqa five times and seizing Memphis (~671 BCE): direct Assyrian testimony to the conquest that briefly made Esarhaddon ruler of Egypt.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 040

Records Esarhaddon's campaign against Abdi-Milkūti of Sidon (~677 BCE), framing the city's destruction as Aššur's will — direct Assyrian royal testimony to the elimination of a major Phoenician maritime power.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 041

Preserves fragmentary language of divine protection and royal legitimation under Esarhaddon, attesting the theological idiom by which Sargonid kings anchored their authority in the gods' 'exalted divinity.'

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 042

Claims dominion over both Egypt and Babylonia (Karduniaš) in a single inscription, placing Esarhaddon among the rare Assyrian kings to assert rule from the Nile to the Persian Gulf.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 043

Claims Esarhaddon's mandate from Aššur, Marduk, and Ištar simultaneously — reflecting his calculated effort to legitimise rule over both Assyria and Babylon after his father Sennacherib's destruction of the city.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 044

Esarhaddon presents himself as ritual custodian of the great temples — confirming sattukku offerings and restoring cult centers — placing religious legitimacy at the heart of neo-Assyrian royal ideology, ca. 675 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 045

Preserves fragments of Esarhaddon's self-presentation as a ritually assiduous king — purification priests, lamentation singers, and cultic offerings at a quayside — illuminating how Assyrian royal ideology fused military and temple-cult legitimacy.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 046

Survives only in fragments, yet adds one manuscript witness to the corpus of Esarhaddon's royal titulary, helping scholars reconstruct how this king broadcast his legitimacy across the Assyrian heartland.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 047

Preserves Esarhaddon's sevenfold titulary — king, governor, shepherd, dynastic heir — the formulaic language through which Assyrian kings simultaneously claimed Babylonian legitimacy and descent from Aššur's oldest royal line.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 049

Attests Esarhaddon's claim to legitimacy through piety — rebuilding Esagil, restoring Babylon's cult offerings, and observing festival calendars — framing conquest as divine mandate rather than imperial ambition.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 050

Preserves fragmentary titulary of Esarhaddon equating the king with Enlil and the solar deity — stock epithets that grounded Assyrian royal ideology in cosmic, not merely political, authority.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 051

Esarhaddon records refurbishing divine statues in Ešarra with Arallu gold and jewels approved by Marduk and Zarpanītu — concrete evidence of how Assyrian kings staged ritual renewal of cult images to legitimise royal piety.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 052

Records Esarhaddon's restoration of the Babylonian gods and their cult statues to Babylon ca. 675 BCE, detailing the ritual 'washing of the mouth' and 'opening of the mouth' ceremonies performed to reactivate the divine images.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 053

Records Esarhaddon's formal dedication of his son Šamaš-šuma-ukīn to Marduk and Zarpanītu, with ritual offerings — a rare first-person account of the succession arrangement that would later split the empire between two brothers.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 054

Records Esarhaddon imposing ritual provisions — honey, groats, and chufa — on the city Kār-Esarhaddon, linking royal foundation ideology to the material upkeep of Aššur and Mullissu's cult.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 055

Attests Esarhaddon's program of cultic restoration — linking his legitimacy as 'true shepherd' to the repair of akītu-house imagery, a propagandistic equation of piety with royal right to rule.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 056

Attests Esarhaddon's claim to piety through his devotion to Eḫulḫul, the temple of the moon-god Sîn at Harran — a sanctuary whose restoration was central to his dynastic legitimacy.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 057

Esarhaddon frames his rule through divine appointment by Enlil and Aššur across two generations, encoding a father-to-son legitimacy chain that justifies his contested succession after Sennacherib's assassination.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 060

Catalogs Esarhaddon's conquests from Cilicia to Dilmun in a single inscription — Cimmerian defeat, the beheading of Sidon's king, and the first Assyrian tribute levy on Dilmun attested in royal records.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRIAo

Esarhaddon 075

Esarhaddon's self-presentation as restorer of Esagil and Babylon documents the ideological rehabilitation of Babylonian cult after Sennacherib's destruction of the city in 689 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 077

Claims Esarhaddon restored Esagil and returned gods exiled to Assyria — royal propaganda justifying his Babylonian kingship by casting conquest as pious reconstruction.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 078

Claims Esarhaddon restored Esagil and returned gods exiled to Assyria — key royal-propaganda evidence for his deliberate reversal of Sennacherib's destruction of Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 088

Royal titulary anchoring Esarhaddon's legitimacy through three generations of Sargonid kings — evidence of how Neo-Assyrian rulers used genealogical inscription to consolidate dynastic authority.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 096

Documents Esarhaddon's construction of a palace at Tarbiṣu, a royal suburb north of Nineveh, attesting the city's role as an administrative satellite within the Assyrian imperial heartland.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 099

Attests Esarhaddon's dual titulature as both 'king of Assyria' and 'governor of Babylon,' reflecting his policy of reconciliation with the city his father Sennacherib had destroyed in 689 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 100

Esarhaddon's royal titulature anchors his reign within a legitimating genealogy stretching from Adasi through Sargon II to Sennacherib, while the blazing-flame simile shows the martial rhetoric woven into Assyrian monumental self-presentation ca. 675 BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~675 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 4

Esarhaddon 1004

Attests Esarhaddon's restoration of Esagil and resettlement of Babylon — his politically charged reversal of his father Sennacherib's destruction of the city, here cast in the idiom of pious royal benefaction.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~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-AssyrianRINAP 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

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