Position in chronology
Tiglath-pileser I 02
Translation · reference
High confidence(1) [The god Aššur, the great lord, the one who properly administers all of the gods, the grantor of the scepter] and crown, the sustainer of kingship; [the god Enlil, the lord] of the universe, [the king] of all of the A[nunnakū gods, the father of the gods], the lord of the lands; [the god Sîn, ...] who is entrusted with the Tablet of Destinies, [...], the lofty divine crescent; [the god Šamaš, the judge of heaven and netherworld, the one who espies] the enemy’s treachery, the who exposes the wicked; [the god Adad, the hero who storms over] hostile [regions], mountains, (and) seas; [the god…
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/Q005927/
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[Aššur, great lord, who makes straight the totality of the gods, who grants sceptre] and crown, who establishes kingship; [Enlil, lord of] sovereignty, [king of al]l the Anunnaki, father of the [gods]; Bēl of the lands; [Sîn ...] who oversees the tablets of destinies [..., the exal]ted barge-god (Mār-bīti/Mākur); [Šamaš, judge of heaven and earth, who surveys] the defeat of ene[mies], who guides the flock; [Adad, the hero, who inundates the] hostile [quarters], the [mountain] lands and the sea-[coasts]; [Nin]urta, the warrior…
6 uncertain terms ↓
- dMÁ.GUR₈ — The logogram MÁ.GUR₈ usually denotes the sacred processional boat of Marduk; here used as a divine epithet or perhaps the deity Mār-bīti. Some editors read this as an epithet of Sîn or Marduk rather than a separate divine name. Cannot verify from photo.
- pu-qu-du DUB-NAM.MEŠ-te — Literally 'who oversees the tablets of destinies (ṭuppi šīmāti)'; the verb paqādu here means 'to entrust/oversee.' The phrase is a standard epithet of Sîn as keeper of fate-tablets, but the beginning of the line is broken.
- ša-qu-ú — Partially broken; restored as 'exalted' (šaqû). Alternative restoration possible depending on parallel manuscripts.
- ra-ḫi-iṣ kib-rat KÚR.MEŠ — Literally 'who inundates/sweeps away the (four) quarters of enemy lands'; rahāṣu can mean 'to flood over' or 'to trample.' The phrase is a standard martial epithet of Adad, but the full line is heavily restored.
- mu-še-eb-ru ṣe-ni — Literally 'who makes the flock cross (safely)'; šēnu = flock/sheep. This is an epithet of Šamaš as shepherd-god and divine judge, but 'guides the flock' is an interpretive rendering.
- kiš-šu-ti / kiš-šat — kiššatu ('totality, universe') and kiššūtu ('sovereignty, supremacy') are related but distinct. The transliteration uses both forms in different lines, correctly distinguishing Aššur's cosmic role from Enlil's political sovereignty.
Reasoning ↓
Photo examination: The image shows six fragments of a clay tablet (British Museum K.2804, labelled 'T-P.' — Tiglath-pileser). The obverse face of the uppermost central fragment is the most legible; roughly five lines of Neo-Assyrian cuneiform are visible, with relatively well-cut wedges though the surface is abraded at the right and upper edges. The middle large fragment (third row) shows approximately six lines of denser text, also readable but with significant erosion at the left margin, consistent with the heavy restorations in square brackets in the scholarly transliteration. The bottom fragment is badly worn and essentially blank/illegible on the exposed face. The right and left flanking pieces show only edge profiles with no readable signs. The visible sign clusters on the uppermost inscribed fragment are broadly consistent with the transliteration's divine name sequence (Aššur, Enlil, Sîn) and epithets, but resolution and angle are insufficient to verify individual sign values with confidence. The scholarly transliteration is drawn from a composite of multiple witnesses (ORACC Q005927), and the extensive lacunae reflect genuine breakage across all manuscript copies. This is a standard Neo-Assyrian royal prologue invoking the great gods as authorisers of kingship, well paralleled in Tiglath-pileser I annals (RIMA 2, A.0.87); restorations within brackets follow those parallels. The reading of dMÁ.GUR₈ as the divine barge (associated with Marduk's processional boat or a separate deity Mār-bīti) remains debated.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 3309 in / 1146 out tokens
Why it matters
Preserves the divine invocation formula of Tiglath-pileser I, naming Aššur, Enlil, Sîn, Šamaš, and Adad as guarantors of Assyrian royal authority — a theological blueprint for Middle Assyrian kingship ideology.
Transliteration
[da-šur EN GAL muš-te-šìr kiš-šat DINGIR.MEŠ na-din GIŠ.GIDRU] ⸢ù⸣ a-ge-e mu-kín LUGAL-⸢ti⸣ / [dEN.LÍL EN?] kiš-šu-ti [šar gi]-⸢mir⸣ da-[nun-na-ki a-bu DINGIR].⸢MEŠ⸣ dEN KUR.KUR / [d30 ...] ⸢pu⸣-qu-du DUB-NAM.MEŠ-te [... ša]-qu-[ú] dMÁ.GUR₈ / [dUTU DI.KUD AN KI-ti ḫa-a-iṭ] ⸢ṣa⸣-al-pat a-a-[bi] mu-še-eb-ru ṣe-ni [dIŠKUR ur-ša-nu ra-ḫi-iṣ kib-rat] KÚR.MEŠ KUR.MEŠ AB.MEŠ-te / [dnin]-⸢urta⸣ qar-du…
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 Q005927.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394684). 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/Q005927/.
Related tablets
Related sources
The earliest historical document in human history. Before this, we have lists, accounts, and dedications. Here, for the first time, a ruler tells us what happened — with names, places, and consequences.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.