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Sumerian · Book

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Sumerian · Book

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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.

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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 84 / 88

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 216

Hymnic praise of a Sargonid king as cosmic mediator — one whose word cannot be changed and without whom no judgement is rendered — fusing royal ideology with the judicial authority of Šamaš.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-Assyrian

RINAP 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-AssyrianRINAP 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 228

Invokes a 1,635-year span of Elamite destruction to justify Ashurbanipal's campaign, showing how Neo-Assyrian royal ideology wove deep historical grievance into divine mandate for war.

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 026

(1) Teumman, the king of the land Elam who had been struck during a mighty battle (and) whose hand Tammarītu, his eldest son, had grasped — they fled in order to save his (Teumman’s) life (and) slipped into the forest. With the support of (the god) Aššur and goddess Ištar, I killed them. I cut off their head(s) in front of one another.

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

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