Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 080
Written in modern English
One or two full columns are missing at the start, and the first several legible lines are too damaged to read. What survives mentions abandoned places, good things, and Ashurbanipal's kingship, before describing how someone — the seed of his father's house — spread lies and incited Urtaku, king of Elam, to act. Urtaku, whom Ashurbanipal had never antagonized, launched an attack and quickly brought war to Babylonia. A messenger rushed to Nineveh with the news, but Ashurbanipal was not alarmed — the account breaks off here, mid-sentence, apparently explaining why.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5One or two columns completely missing (i' 1') (No translation possible) (i' 5') [...] abando[ned ...] good (things) [...] m[y] kingship [...] heard about the lies [...] ... the seed of his father's house, [incited Urtaku, the king of] the land Elam. (i' 11') [Urtaku, whom I had not antagonized], set his attack in motion (and) [hastily bro]ught war [to Karduniaš (Babylonia). On account of the assault of the] Elamite, [a messenger] came [to Nineveh] and (i´ 15´) [told me (the news). I was not con]cerned about this [news of Urtaku’s assault. (Because) he had regularly sent his envoys (with…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Records Urtaku of Elam's unprovoked invasion of Babylonia despite Ashurbanipal's prior goodwill — a rare Assyrian royal account of the diplomatic breakdown that triggered the Assyro-Elamite wars of the 650s BCE.
Transliteration
[...] x [...] / [...] ⸢Ú⸣ PA x [...] / [...] ⸢Á⸣ [...] / [...] TU [...] / [...] ú-maš-⸢šir⸣ [(x)] / [...] SIG₅-[tu] / [...] LUGAL-u-ti-⸢ia⸣ / [...] ⸢iš⸣-ma-a sur-ra-a-⸢ti⸣ / [...] x-qa-mu-u NUMUN É AD-šú / [id-ku-u-ni mur-ta-ki MAN] KUR.ELAM.MA.KI / [mur-ta-ki šá la ag-ru-šú] ⸢id⸣-ka-a qa-bal-šú / [a-na KUR.kár-ddun-ía-àš ur]-⸢ri⸣-ḫa MÈ / [áš-šú ti-bu-ut LÚ].⸢e⸣-lam-e / [LÚ.A KIN a-na NINA.KI]…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003779.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P394585). source
Translation excerpted from Novotny, J. & Jeffers, J. 2018–. The Royal Inscriptions of Ashurbanipal (668–631 BC), Aššur-etel-ilāni (630–627 BC) and Sîn-šarra-iškun (626–612 BC), Kings of Assyria. RINAP 5. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap5/Q003779/.
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