Sumerian·Book

Position in chronology

Adad-narari I 23

~1300 BCE·Middle Assyrian·Q005760

Written in modern English

Any future ruler who repairs this wall after it falls into disrepair must restore Adad-narari's commemorative inscriptions and his written name to their proper places; if he does, the gods Aššur and others whose names are now lost will hear his prayers. But if a future ruler erases Adad-narari's name, writes his own in its place, or discards the commemorative inscriptions, those same gods will destroy him, his army, and his descendants — the closing lines are too damaged to read in full.

A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.

Translation — scholar edition

RIAo
High confidence
(1') [In the future, may a future ruler, when he renovates] that wall [(when) it becomes dilapidated, return my commemorative inscriptions and inscribed name] to their places. [The gods Aššur ...] will (then) listen to [his prayers]. (3'b) [(As for) the one who erases my inscribed name and writes his (own) name or] discards my [commemorative inscriptions, may the gods Aššur ... destroy] him, his army, [and his seed ...].

Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).

Transliteration

[a-na ar-kat UD.MEŠ NUN ar-ku-ú e-nu-ma i]-⸢ga⸣-ru šu-[ú e-na-ḫu-ma] / [ú-da-šu na-re-ia ù šu-mì šaṭ-ra a]-na aš-ri-[šu-nu lu-te-er] / [daš-šur ... ik-ri-be-šu] ⸢i⸣-še-mu-⸢ú⸣ [ša šu-mì šaṭ-ra] / [i-pa-ši-ṭu-ma MU-šu i-ša-ṭa-ru ù lu-ú na-re]-ia ú-šá-am-[sa-ku] / [daš-šur u ...] šá-a-šu um?-⸢ma?⸣-[an-šu u NUMUN-šu li-ner-šu-nu-ti-ma] / [...] x-ti a-⸢na⸣ [...] / [...] x na x [...] / [...] x šu x [...]

Scholarly note

Royal inscription of an Assyrian king, published in the Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online project (RIAo). Translation reproduced from the ORACC edition. ORACC text Q005760.

Attribution

Image: Based on A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Third and Second Millennia BC (to 1115 BC) (RIMA 1), Toronto, 1987. Adapted by Jamie Novotny (2015-16) and lemmatized and updated by Nathan Morello (2016) for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/riao/Q005760/..
Translation excerpted from Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q005760/.

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