Theme
Writing & Literature
The invention of writing itself, the slow drift from pictogram to cuneiform sign, the rise of literary form — and the first named author in human history, the priestess Enheduanna.
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 183
[1] , [...]\n1 , [...] KAB[?]\n1 , NAM2 DI\n1 , NAM2 NAM2\n1 , [...]\n1 , NAM2 PA RAD\n1 , AB ME\n1 , GAL |N58.BAD|\n1 , EN [...]\n1 , [...]\n1 , [...]\n1 , [...]\n41 , X [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 184
[1] , [...] SUKKAL 1 , chief dairy-official [1] , [...] 1 , chief first-fruits official 1 , chief herdsman [1] , [chief] lord/master 1 , chief [...] 1 , clay/wind [...] [...] , [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 188
1(N01) , NAM-ESZDA 1(N01) , NAM2 KAB[?] 1(N01) , NAM2 DI 1(N01) , NAM2 NAM2 1(N01) , NAM2 URU[?] 1(N01) , PA~a ŠE~a NAM2 1(N01) , NAM2 RAD~a 1(N01) , AB~a ME~a[?] 1(N01) , GAL~a X 1(N01)[?] , EN[?] [...] 1(N01)[?] , X [...] 1(N01)[?] , X [...] 1(N01)[?] , [...] 1(N01)[?] , [...] [N] 1(N14) , EN~a 2(N57) [E2 ...]
Writing & LiteratureDaily Life
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 194
1(N01) , NAM2 [variant] DI [variant] 1(N01) , NAM2 [variant] NAM2 [variant?] 1(N01) , NAM2 [variant] URU [city-sign variant] [1(N01)] , [...] NAM2 [variant] 1(N01) , barley(-sign) NAM2 [variant] 1(N01) , NAM2 [variant] RAD [variant] PA [overseer-sign] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , KINGAL 1(N01) , GAL [great/large] TE 1(N01) , SUKKAL [...] 41(N01) [N] , X [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000022, ex. 032
[1(N01)] , GISZ HI GISZ TUN3~a [1(N01)] , [GISZ] AD~a [1(N01)] , [...] 1(N01) , SI TAG~b GISZ [1(N01)] , [...] [N] , [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000023, ex. 098
[1] vessel, [...] [1] vessel — [DUG~b jar with unidentified sign] (uncertain) [1] vessel — [DUG~b jar with natron/soapwort sign] (very uncertain) 1 vessel — [DUG~b jar with unidentified sign] (uncertain) 1 (uncertain), [...] 1, GAN~c (?) [...] 1, GAN~c (?) [...] [N], [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000026, ex. 055
1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , URI[?] 1(N01) , MUD3~a[?] 1(N01) , MUD3@g 1(N01) , MIR~b 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N34) 2(N14) [...] , [...]
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000026, ex. 056
1(N01) , [X — damaged/unclear sign] 1(N01) , SZAKIR~b 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , [...] 1(N01) , SZU2 GU 1(N01) , SZU2 GU [...] 1(N01) , GAL~a TUN3~a 1(N01) , 2(N57) SZU TUN3~a 1(N01) , 1(N57) SZU TUN3~a 1(N01) , AL [...]? 1(N01) , [...] 1(N34) 4(N01) , [...]
Writing & LiteratureKish Tablet
Marks the boundary between proto-writing and writing. We can see signs being used systematically — but not yet phonetically. The leap to recording speech itself comes a few centuries later.
Writing & LiteratureProto-Cuneiform Account Tablet
One of the earliest specimens of human writing. Not literature, not law — accounting. The need to keep track of grain in a temple bureaucracy is what pushed marks-on-clay into a system that could one day carry epics.
Writing & LiteratureEconomy
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 176
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 176. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 182
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Uruk III (ca. 3200-3000 BC)) — CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 182. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CDLI Lexical 000002, ex. 191
[...] |1(N58).BAD~a| EN, IB [...] Linen-cloth(?) SUKKAL (vizier) Great one, GARA2 Garment, GARA2 [...] Great one of the throne-base Great one of |ZATU737xDI| SANGA-priest of |ZATU737xX| SANGA-priest of |ZATU737xX| [ZATU725(?)] [DAM(?)] (spouse/wife?)
Writing & LiteratureDaily Life
CDLI Lexical 000003, ex. 034
1 unit — NAM2[...] 1 unit — GAL~a (great/large) SZAH2~a 1 unit — NAM2 APIN~a (plow [official]) 1 unit — GAL~a [...] 1 unit — GAL~a SZAB~a 1 unit — PA~a NAM2 [...] 1 unit — AB~a [...] 1 unit — GAL~a [...]
Writing & LiteratureDaily Life
SF 002
šud₃ of the mountain-land, surpassing [all others] e-lum that covers [the sky?] [...] [...] toward/of [barley?] [...] [...] (broken) e-lum of the righteous/true crown The house (temple) whose interior canopies the sky — (sweet as) honey e-lum with [prayer?] beside it Mistress of [the sea / cattle-stall], of Anzû
Writing & Literature
SF 025
[...] (illegible) Ur-Inanna Ku-lili Si-du [A?]-|SAGxHA|-NE Mes-abzu Ur-Nisaba Mes-pa Zu-[la?]-lum Woman-[...] Nu-[...] ([...]) [illegible]
Writing & Literature
Abzu-kidu 2
Dedicatory bowl inscription naming Abzu-kidug and her spouse: one of the sparse Early Dynastic records attesting elite women by name in Sumerian royal dedicatory practice, c. 2450 BCE.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
An(u)bu 3
Dedicatory inscription naming Nin-meta-bare, child of Anbu, as donor to the deity Asum — a rare personal-name attestation anchoring prosopography at an Early Dynastic Sumerian cult site c. 2450 BCE.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 02 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 02)
A votive dedication from Nippur naming a royal spouse, Aya-barag-ana — one of the rare Early Dynastic inscriptions to record a woman's active role in dedicating cult objects.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 04 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 04)
A votive dedication to Nintinuga, goddess of healing, from ~2450 BCE Nippur — attesting her cult and the practice of consecrated vessel offerings a century before Sargon unified Mesopotamia.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 05 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 05)
Dedicatory inscription naming Puzur-Mama, a merchant, before the healing goddess Nintinuga — early evidence that commercial figures, not only kings or priests, commissioned votive texts at Nippur around 2450 BCE.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 06 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 06)
A votive dedication to Ninlil by a ruler named Enlila, attesting the practice of offering consecrated vessels for the welfare of family members at Nippur a full century before the Akkadian Empire.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 07 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 07)
Votive dedication naming Saĝ-diĝir-tuku and Lugal-ennu preserves personal names and the practice of interceding for named individuals before the gods in Early Dynastic Nippur.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Anonymous Nippur 08 (FAOS 05/2, AnNip 08)
Dedicates a vessel to the goddess Ninlil on behalf of a named field surveyor's family — attesting private votive practice by a mid-level administrative official at Nippur during the Early Dynastic III period.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Disk of Enheduanna
The literary tradition is no longer anonymous from this point. Authorship — the idea that a specific human voice composes a specific work — enters the historical record with her.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Gudea 003
Gudea's dedication of Bau's temple at Iri-kug documents the pre-Ur III ruler of Lagaš as a temple-builder for An's daughter, anchoring his legitimacy in divine patronage rather than military conquest.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 004
Records Gudea of Lagaš's construction of a temple to Bau at Iri-kug, anchoring the goddess's cult site to a specific Lagašite ruler and expanding the known catalogue of his building projects beyond the celebrated E-ninnu.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 008
Gudea's dedication of a temple to Dumuzid-abzu at Ĝirsu attests the ruler's active patronage of a goddess otherwise sparsely documented in royal building inscriptions of the Lagaš II period.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 011
Attests Gudea's construction of a temple to Ĝatumdug at Iri-kug, anchoring the goddess's cult site and Lagaš's sacred geography during the Neo-Sumerian revival.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 016
Gudea's dedication of the E-mehušgal-anki temple to Igalim, son of the city-god Ninĝirsu, documents the religious building program through which Lagaš's rulers asserted divine favour and civic identity in the late third millennium.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 018
Attests Gudea's construction of an Inana temple at Ĝirsu, adding one entry to the catalogue of Lagašite royal building programs that defined Neo-Sumerian piety and statecraft before the Ur III unification.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 019
Attests Gudea of Lagaš's construction of a temple to Inana at Ĝirsu, adding one data point to the corpus of his building activity in the late 3rd millennium.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 024
Records Gudea of Lagaš's construction of a temple to Mešlamta-ea in Ĝirsu, adding one data point to the corpus of pre-Ur III royal building inscriptions that map Sumerian cultic geography.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 025
Gudea's dedication of the E-sirara temple to Nanše at Niĝin attests the governor of Lagaš's active patronage of a goddess whose portfolio explicitly included boundary-setting and social justice, linking civic piety to legal order in the Ur III period.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 026
Records Gudea of Lagaš's restoration of Nanše's temple E-sirara at Niĝin, adding a dateable monument to the corpus of pre-Ur-III Lagašite royal piety toward the boundary-goddess.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Gudea 030
Dedicatory inscription from Gudea of Lagaš recording temple construction for Ninazu at Ĝirsu: evidence that this neo-Sumerian ruler maintained a personal divine patron distinct from the city-god Ningirsu.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Amar-Suena 10
Dedicatory curse clause invokes Nanna and Ningal against anyone who displaces the statue, preserving the standard Ur III formula for protecting royal monuments through divine sanction rather than human enforcement.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Amar-Suena 12
Records Amar-Suena's construction of a royal jail at Ur — one of the earliest explicit textual attestations of a dedicated carceral institution in Mesopotamian history.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Amar-Suena 15
Dedicatory inscription of Amar-Suena for Enki's Abzu temple at Eridu, attesting the third Ur III king's building programme and his claim to universal rule under Enlil's authority.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Amar-Suena 16
Records Amar-Suena's foundation of the first ĝipar (high-priestess residence) at Karzida, attesting the Ur III crown's active role in extending Nanna's cult into previously unserved cult centres.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Amar-Suena 18
Preserves a royal titulary of Amar-Suena — 'king of Urim, king of the four quarters' — attesting the ideological claim to universal sovereignty that defined Ur III kingship at its height.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Amar-Suena 2009
A private votive dedication by a scribe's wife to the goddess Lamma, it attests the personal piety of literate households under Amar-Suena and the role of women as independent dedicants in Ur III religious life.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Amar-Suena 21
Dedicatory inscription naming Taddin-Eštar as a royal child of Amar-Suena, adding a personal name to the otherwise sparse prosopography of the Ur III royal family.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
E-IGI.NIM-pa'e 2
Commemorates E-iginim-pa'e of Adab's construction of the E-mah temple for the goddess Diĝir-mah, attesting royal building piety and the foundation-peg ritual at one of Sumer's lesser-documented city-states.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Laws of Lipit-Eštar (RIME 4.01.05.add10 (Laws of Lipit-Ishtar) composite)
Predates Hammurabi by roughly 150 years, recording Lipit-Eštar's mandate from An and Enlil to 'establish justice' — an early articulation of the Mesopotamian ideology that divine authority underwrites royal law-giving.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Lugal-ayamu 2001
Records Ur-Imma's temple construction for Damgalnuna at Adab under the administrator Lugal-ayaĝu, attesting early Ur III institutional religion: a slave-born temple builder rewarded with divine favour for his family's welfare.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Lugal-KISAL-si 1
Dedicatory inscription of Lugal-kisalesi attests a king ruling both Uruk and Ur simultaneously, documenting a rare dual kingship in the late Early Dynastic–Ur III transitional period.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Šaratigubisin 1add (CUSAS 17, 014)
Attests a royal child holding the office of temple administrator (šabra) at Keš, documenting how Ur III kings extended dynastic control over provincial sanctuaries through direct family appointments.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Šamši-Adad I 02
Claims the Emašmaš temple in Nineveh as a restoration of a structure built by Maništušu of Agade, asserting Assyrian dynastic continuity across seven generations of post-Akkadian history.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Šamši-Adad I 11
Attests Šamši-Adad I's self-presentation as temple-builder of Aššur, anchoring his reign within the city-god's cult at the moment Assyria first emerged as a territorial kingdom.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Sumerian King List (Weld-Blundell Prism)
The single most influential Mesopotamian king list — the model for every later attempt to chronicle the deep history of the region. It transmits the political theology of divinely granted kingship, an idea that would echo through Babylon, Assyria, and into the Hebrew Bible. The Weld-Blundell prism (WB 444) at the Ashmolean is the most complete surviving copy.
Religion & MythWriting & Literature
Enlil-bani 02
Attests Enlil-bani's construction of Isin's great city wall ca. 1925 BCE, with its dedicatory name preserving the ideological formula that equated a king's name with the physical permanence of urban fortification.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Enlil-bani 03
Attests Enlil-bani's rebuilding of Isin's city wall c. 1925 BCE, anchoring both his public works programme and his claim to divine legitimacy through Inana's spousal election and Enlil's favour.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Enlil-bani 04
Enlil-bani of Isin (r. c. 1860–1837 BCE) records his construction of the E-urĝira temple for Ninisina, anchoring his legitimacy in the goddess's patronage of Isin and his priestly role at Uruk.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Enlil-bani 07
Attests Enlil-bani's construction of the E-dimgal-ana temple for the goddess Sud at Isin, anchoring his reign (~1860–1837 BCE) within the Sumerian tradition of legitimating kingship through divine patronage.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Enlil-bani 09
Enlil-bani of Isin claims to have 'established justice in Sumer and Akkad' — the same reforming formula later codified by Hammurabi — linking his reign to a tradition of royal law-giving a century before Babylon's famous code.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Išme-Dagan 01
Royal self-presentation of Išme-Dagan I of Isin, accumulating cultic titles across Nippur, Ur, Eridu, and Uruk to legitimise rule over a fragmented post-Ur III landscape.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Išme-Dagan 02
Royal titulary of Išme-Dagan I of Isin, attesting his claim to en-priesthood of Uruk and spousal relationship with Inana — ideological strategies by which Isin kings legitimised succession to the fallen Ur III empire.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Išme-Dagan 03
Names En-ana-tuma as both zirru and en priestess of Nanna at Ur, documenting the rare overlap of two distinct priestly offices in a single woman under Išme-Dagan's reign.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Išme-Dagan 04
Identifies En-ana-tuma as both en priestess of Nanna at Ur and daughter of Išme-Dagan, directly linking royal Isin dynastic authority to the prestigious lunar-cult office at its traditional Ur III heartland.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Erišum I 03
Documents Erišum I's temple construction at Aššur and its ritual furnishings — bronze duck weights and beer vats — giving the earliest detailed record of cultic equipment in an Assyrian royal building inscription.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Erišum I 06
Attests Erišum I's construction of Aššur's temple in the god's own city, anchoring the earliest stratum of Assyrian royal piety and the vice-regent (iššiak Aššur) titulature that defined Old Assyrian kingship.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Erišum I 10
Erišum I consecrates the Aššur temple 'Wild Bull' by mixing ghee and honey into the mortar — one of the earliest Assyrian royal building inscriptions, and evidence that the ritual deposit of clay cones as dynastic markers was already standard practice c. 1900 BCE.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythAminu 2002
(1) Muqaddimum, servant of Aminu.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythAzuzu 2001 / Man-ištušu 2002
(1) Man-ištūšu, the king of the world. Azuzu, his servant, dedicated (this spear) to the god Beʾal-SI.SI.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 01
(1) [...] ... Erišum (I), overseer of (the god) Aššur, [son of Ilu-šūma], overseer of (the god) Aššur; Ilu-šūma (was) the son of Šalim-aḫum, [overseer of (the god) Aššur]; (and) Šalim-aḫum (was) the son of Puzur-Aššur (I), [overseer of (the god) Aššur]. (4) Erišum (I), vice-regent of Aššur: I [built] the holy [Step] Gate, (and) the chapel [for] my lord. I built a [high] throne (and) adorned the front of it with a precious stone (ḫušāru). I installed (its) doors. (8b) With (the god) Aššur, my lord, standing by me, I reserved land for (the god) Aššur, my lord, from the Sheep Gate to the…
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 02
(1) Eriš[um (I)], vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of Ilu-šūma, vice-regent of the god Aššur. (7) He built the temple (and) all of the temple area for the god Aššur, his lord, for his life, and the life of his city. (15) When I started the work, (when) my city was under my command, I made silver, gold, copper, tin, barley, and wool, as well as the payment of bran and straw, exempt from taxes. (26) I mixed ghee and honey into (the mortar of) every wall and (then) laid one layer of bricks. With the god Aššur, my lord, standing by me, I cleared houses from the Sheep Gate to the People’s Gate.…
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 04
(1) Erišum (I), vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of Ilu-šūma, vice-regent of the god Aššur. (7) For the god Aššur, his lord, for his life, and the life of his city, he built the entire temple area of the temple of the god Aššur and the holy Step Gate, (as well as) the chapel of (the god) Aššur.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 05
(1) Erišum (I), vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of Ilu-šūma, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur. (7) For his life and the life of his city, he built all of the temple area for (the god) Aššur, his lord. He installed (its) doors.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 07
(1) Erišum (I), vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, son of Ilu-šūma, vice-regent of the god Aššur. (7) For (the god) Aššur, his lord, for his life, and the life of his city, he built the temple area of (the god) Aššur.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 08
(1) Erišum (I), vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, son of Ilu-šūma, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur. (7) It was Erišum (I), vice-regent of the god Aššur, who built [(...)] for [his] life.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythErišum I 09
(1) Erišum (I), vice-regent of the god A[ššur], son of Ilu-[šūma], vice-regent of the god Aššur. (7) For his life, he built all of the temple area for the god Aššur, his lord.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
BM 090715
The mighty king, king of the four quarters (of the world), the Ekišnugal — the ancient temple — from time immemorial had been built, [then] had fallen into ruin; he rebuilt it [for him], to its [former] place he restored it; its foundations...
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
BM 137412
[The king of the] four [quarters], the Ekišnugal — the [temple] of old, which from [distant] days had been built (and) had fallen into ruin — he (re)built (it) for him; to its (former) place he restored it; its foundations he refounded.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 1
(1) Arik-dīn-ili, strong king, king of Assyria, the one who built the temple of the god Šamaš — the exalted shrine — for posterity, son of Enlil-nārārī, king of Assyria, son of Aššur-uballiṭ (I), (who was) also king of Assyria. (14) When I planned to build that temple so that the harvest of my land might prosper, at the sanctuary of the god Šamaš, the high place where the decisions of the land had been previously made, but now it was becoming a mound of dirt and around it the “shrines” of the people, which they had taken and settled in, I destroyed (that sanctuary). I laid its foundation(s)…
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 2
(1) Arik-dīn-ili, legitimate ruler, strong king, king of Assyria, builder of the temple of the god Šamaš — the exalted shrine. (5) (As for) whoever erases my inscribed name or removes my inscription, may the god Šamaš, my lord, overthrow his kingship and afflict his land with famine.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 3
(1) [Arik-dīn-ili, vice-regent of the god Aššur], son of [En]lil-[nārārī, vice-regent of] the god Aššur, [son of] Aššur-[uballiṭ (I)], (who was) also vice-regent of the god Aššur. (7) [For his life and the well]-being of his city: [...] ... [... from] its [foundations to] its [crenellations]. (12b) When [... becomes dilapidated and] old
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 4
(1) [Ar]ik-dīn-[ili, vice-regent of the god Aššur], son of Enlil-nārārī, vice-regent [of the god Aššur], son of Aššur-uballiṭ (I), [(who was) also vice-regent of the god Aššur]. (4) [...] ... [... b]uilt fr]om [its] foundation[s to its crenellations]. (6b) [...] my [...]
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 5
(1) [Ar]ik-dīn-i[li, vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of E]nlil-nārārī, [vice-regent of the god Aššur, son of Ašš]ur-uball[iṭ (I), (who was) also vice-regent of the god Aššur]. (4) [...], it had become dila[pidated and ...]
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 6
(1) [Ar]ik-dīn-[ili, vice-regent of the god A]ššur, [son of Enlil-nārārī, vice-regent of] the god Aššur, [son of Aššur-uballiṭ (I), (who was) also vice-regent of the god Aššur].
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 7
(1) Palace of Arik-dīn-ili, king of Assyria, son of Enlil-nārārī, king of Assyria, son of Aššur-uballiṭ (I), king of Assyria.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & MythArik-din-ili 8
(1') [...] ... he brought [...], 100 of their sheep, 100 of their oxen [...] to (his) city, Aššur. (4'b) At that time, [...] ... 7,000 storage-containers, in their mouths/by their command, in front of [...] ... a large battering-ram, he made. Arik-dīn-ili [...] … he gave his gift to the goddess Ištar [... for] his life [...]. (9') [...] powerful, Arik-dīn-ili carried off the harvest of Esini [...]. He killed Esini, 33 chariots of ... [...] with the .... Arik-dīn-ili led in [...] ... of his chariots. The chariots [... the city Ar]nuna of the land Nigimḫi, the fortress of the land ... [...] he…
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & MythWriting & Literature
Adad-narari I 39
Marks Adad-nārārī I's construction of a quay wall at the palace canal: physical evidence of royal infrastructure investment at Aššur in the early Middle Assyrian period.
Writing & Literature
Adad-narari I 40
Marks Adad-nārārī I as builder of Aššur's Tigris quay wall, anchoring his public-works program in the archaeological and epigraphic record of early Middle Assyrian urban infrastructure.
Writing & Literature
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
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 & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Adad-nerari II 7
Attests the royal titulary of Adad-nārārī II — 'king of the world, king of Assyria' — and anchors his lineage through Aššur-dān II to Tiglath-pileser II, fixing the dynastic continuity of the early Neo-Assyrian restoration.
Writing & Literature
Adad-nerari II 8
Standard titulary of Adad-nārārī II anchoring his legitimacy through two generations of royal descent, attesting the formulaic language by which Assyrian kings asserted dynastic continuity around 900 BCE.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurnasirpal II 060
One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II (r. 883–859 BCE), preserved in the RIAo corpus as a witness to the formulaic and historical record of early Neo-Assyrian kingship.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurnasirpal II 061
One of the surviving royal inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal II, whose annals collectively document the territorial expansion and brutal suppression campaigns that defined early Neo-Assyrian imperial statecraft.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Adad-nerari III 13
Records Adad-nārārī III completing a palace left unfinished by his father Šamšī-Adad V, attesting the dynastic continuity rhetoric Assyrian kings used to legitimise building projects inherited across reigns.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Adad-nerari III 14
Documents Adad-nērārī III's reconstruction of Nabû's Nineveh temple, anchoring the god's growing cult prominence in the Assyrian heartland to a datable early eighth-century royal patron.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Adad-nerari III 15
Adad-nerari III's royal titulary chains three successive kings as Enlil's appointees and Aššur's vice-regents, attesting the dynastic legitimation formula the Assyrians used to anchor living rule in divine mandate.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Adad-nerari III 16
Royal titulary of Adad-nārārī III anchors his legitimacy in two generations of conquest kings, Šamšī-Adad V and Shalmaneser III, illustrating how Assyrian rulers constructed dynastic authority through inscribed genealogy.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurbanipal 001
Documents Ashurbanipal's forced resettlement of conquered populations into Egypt and the Levantine town of Qirbit — a concrete case of Assyrian demographic engineering as an instrument of imperial control.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurbanipal 002
Lists nine deities who legitimise Ashurbanipal's rule, each sponsoring a different royal quality — a snapshot of the theological machinery the Neo-Assyrian court used to underwrite imperial authority.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurbanipal 003
Claims divine sanction for Ashurbanipal's literacy — the gods granted him 'a broad mind' to master the scribal arts — embedding scholarly kingship ideology at the heart of Assyrian royal self-presentation.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Ashurbanipal 004
Claims divine sanction not just for Ashurbanipal's military power but for his scribal learning — one of the clearest royal assertions that literacy itself was a gift of the gods and a mark of legitimate kingship.
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
BM 091441
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — BM 091441. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
CDLJ 2007/1 §3.49
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — CDLJ 2007/1 §3.49. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
CDLJ 2007/1 §3.50
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — CDLJ 2007/1 §3.50. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
CUSAS 15, 043
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — CUSAS 15, 043. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
DUROM 2009.9
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC) ?) — DUROM 2009.9. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Genava 17, 031, no. 23
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — Genava 17, 031, no. 23. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
Iraq 06, 178, 80 + 81
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — Iraq 06, 178, 80 + 81. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
MSL SS 1, 033
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — MSL SS 1, 033. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureDaily Life
MSL SS 1, 083
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — MSL SS 1, 083. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Neo-Babylonian (ca. 626-539 BC)) — RINBE 1, Nebuchadnezzar II nn, ex. nn. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
RIMB 3.nn
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — RIMB 3.nn. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
BM 090731
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — BM 090731. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
BM 118362
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — BM 118362. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & LiteratureReligion & Myth
CBS 10948
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC) ?) — CBS 10948. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 321
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 321. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 323
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 323. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 324
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 324. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 379
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 379. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 382
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 382. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 383
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 383. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 384
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 384. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature
CULC 385
Catalogue entry from CDLI (Achaemenid (547-331 BC)) — CULC 385. No scholarly translation has been published; the transliteration is from the ATF (CDLI's Atf-Friendly format).
Writing & Literature