Position in chronology
Eriba-Adad II 1
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) Erība-Adad (II), king of the world, [strong king, king of Assyria], king of all four quarters (of the world), select [of (the god) Aššur], the holy [priest] who under the protective hand of the god Ninurta, [(the king who is) the] choice of the god Enlil, the valiant man, [the controller of] the insubmissive who breaks up [the forces of the rebellious], the strong gišginû who [...] dangerous people, at whose [strong belligerent] attack the quarters (of the world) are in dire distress, the mountains [are convulsed], and [he has turned his] dangerous [enemies] into ghosts [like reeds in] a…
Source: 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/Q005998/
Translation · AI engine
read from photoEriba-Adad, king of the universe, [mighty king, king of the land of Assyria?], king of all the four quarters, [heart's desire of Aššur, pure priest?], pure one, the chosen of the hand of Ninurta, [(king,) pride of] the eyes of Enlil, heroic warrior, val[iant, who subdues] the disobedient, who dis[solves battle-formations, who is supremely exalted], the strong giš-ginû-weapon with which [...], the fierce one who against the onset [of his mighty battle] the regions ever [press(?)] — [they quake], the mountains and the fierce [enemies...]
9 uncertain terms ↓
- mSU-dIŠKUR — Logographic writing of the royal name Eriba-Adad (literally 'Adad has replaced/compensated'); here Eriba-Adad II (king of Assyria, c. 1056–1054 BCE), distinguished from Eriba-Adad I (c. 1390–1364 BCE) by the regnal context.
- bi-⸢bíl⸣ [lìb-bi] — bībil libbi = 'heart's desire / beloved'; partially broken; restoration standard for Assyrian royal titulary.
- SANGA-ú — šangû = 'priest / temple administrator'; the restoration [SANGA-ú] here gives the epithet 'pure priest (of Aššur),' a common royal title; the sign is broken and the reading is restored.
- ti-ri-iṣ qa-at dMAŠ — tiriṣ qāt Ninurta = 'chosen/elect of the hand of Ninurta'; tiriṣ (also written tirṣu) means 'chosen, appointed'; dMAŠ = Ninurta.
- IGI.MEŠ dBAD — IGI.MEŠ = 'eyes'; dBAD = Enlil (logographic); 'pride/object-of-gaze of the eyes of Enlil' is a royal epithet attested in several Middle Assyrian texts.
- giš-gi-nu-⸢ú dan⸣-nu — giš-ginû dannu = 'strong/mighty giš-ginû'; giš-ginû (also gišginû) is a weapon type, possibly a type of spear or lance; the exact typology is debated in secondary literature.
- al-ṭu-te — alṭūtu (< alāṭu?) = 'fierce ones'; the word is used both as an epithet of the king and as a description of enemies; its precise morphological derivation is discussed but generally rendered 'fierce/ferocious.'
- UB.MEŠ ⸢ul-ta-nap⸣-ša-qa — UB.MEŠ = kibāru / ūbū = 'regions/corners (of the world)'; ul-ta-nap-ša-qa is the Gtn stem of našāqu 'to press / to kiss (the feet)'; alternatively 'to reach, to attain'; the reading of ⸢ul-ta-nap⸣ is partially broken and uncertain.
- [i-ḫi-il-lu] — iḫillu (< aḫālu?) = 'they quake/tremble'; fully restored from parallel; cannot be verified from the photograph.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of the photograph: The tablet (K.2693, British Museum) is photographed from multiple angles. The obverse (upper centre image) shows several lines of dense Neo-Assyrian cuneiform, largely legible in the upper portion but becoming more damaged and eroded toward the lower edges. The wedge impressions are moderately clear in the top half of the obverse; individual signs can be traced but not read at high confidence at this image resolution and scale. The reverse (lower centre) shows only faint traces of writing in a few lines near the top, with the remainder largely blank or too eroded to read; the surface appears considerably more damaged than the obverse. Side views show the tablet's thickness and minor chipping. The museum label 'K.2693' is visible on the left edge. Overall, the photo broadly corroborates the presence of multiple lines of royal titulary text on the obverse consistent with the transliteration, but individual sign verification is not possible at this resolution — especially for the heavily restored passages in square brackets. The transliteration is provided by ORACC (Q005998) and belongs to the corpus of Eriba-Adad II royal inscriptions; the titulary formulae are standard for Middle Assyrian royal building or dedicatory texts. Extensive restorations are required due to breakage along the right edge of the tablet, visible in the photo. The giš-ginû weapon epithet and the mountain-subduing topos are well paralleled in contemporary Assyrian royal inscriptions (cf. RIMA 1).
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3306 in / 1382 out tokens
Why it matters
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.
Transliteration
mSU-dIŠKUR LUGAL ⸢KIŠ⸣ [MAN dan-nu MAN KUR aš-šur?] / MAN kúl-lat kib-rat 4 bi-⸢bíl⸣ [lìb-bi aš-šur SANGA-ú?] / el-lu ti-ri-iṣ qa-at dMAŠ [(MAN) ni-iš] / IGI.MEŠ dBAD eṭ-lu qar-[du mu-la-iṭ] / la ma-gi-⸢ri mu⸣-pa-ri-[ru KI.ṢIR.MEŠ mu-ul-tar-ḫi] / giš-gi-nu-⸢ú dan⸣-nu ša x [...] / al-ṭu-te ⸢ša⸣ a-⸢na⸣ ti-ib [MÈ-šú dan-ni] / UB.MEŠ ⸢ul-ta-nap⸣-ša-qa [i-ḫi-il-lu] / ḫur-ša-⸢ni⸣ ù al-ṭu-te [KÚR.MEŠ-šu…
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 Q005998.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394609). source
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/Q005998/.
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