Position in chronology
Aššur-reša-iši I 05
Translation — scholar edition
RIAo(1) Palace of Aššur-rēša-i[ši (I)], designate of the god Anu, conqueror of the insubmissive, subduer of all of the fierce (enemies), strong king, king of the world, king of [Assyria], son of Mutakkil-[Nusku], king of [Assyria], son of Aššur-dān (I), [(who was) also king of Assyria]. (10) Belonging to the palace [...] of Nin[eveh ...].
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
Why it matters
Palace label of Aššur-rēša-iši I, attesting his full titulary — 'designate of Anu, king of the world' — and his three-generation Assyrian royal lineage at a formative moment of Middle Assyrian state-building.
Transliteration
É.GAL maš-šur-SAG-i-[ši] / ni-bi-it d⸢a⸣-[nim] / ka-šid la ma-gi-ri / mu-še-ek-ni-⸢šu⸣ / gi-mir al-ṭu-⸢te⸣ / MAN KALA MAN KIŠ MAN KUR [aš-šur] / A mu-tàk-kil-⸢d⸣[nusku] / MAN ⸢KUR⸣ [aš-šur] / A aš-šur-dan ⸢MAN⸣ [KUR aš-šur-ma] / šá É.GAL [...] / šá URU.ni-⸢na⸣-[a ...]
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 Q005903.
Attribution
Image: BM 137484 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P428615). 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/Q005903/.
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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.
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.
The earliest historical document in human history.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.