Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 114
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1) [I, Ashurbanipal, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of] Assyria, king of the fo[ur] quarters (of the world); [offspring of Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, governor of Babylo]n, king of the land of Sumer and Akkad; [descendant of Sennacherib, king of the world], king of Assyria — (4) [...] of fruit orchards the great gods determined [my] lot [...] they entrusted me with the carrying off of their [plunder ...] they attired my head with awe-inspiring radiance [...] had no rival (lit. “there was no one to rival (me)”). (8) I marched [from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea, where the…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Traces Ashurbanipal's conquests 'from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea,' encoding the Assyrian imperial ideology of universal kingship through its titulary and campaign narrative.
Transliteration
[a-na-ku mAN.ŠÁR-DÙ-A LUGAL GAL-u LUGAL dan-nu LUGAL ŠÚ LUGAL KUR] aš-šur.KI ⸢LUGAL⸣ kib-rat ⸢LÍMMU-tim?⸣ / [È lìb-bi mAN.ŠÁR-PAP-AŠ MAN KUR AN.ŠÁR.KI GÌR.NÍTA KÁ.DINGIR].⸢RA⸣.KI LUGAL KUR EME.GI₇ u URI.⸢KI⸣ / [ŠÀ.BAL.BAL md30-PAP.MEŠ-SU LUGAL ŠÚ] LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI / [...]-⸢aḫ⸣ ṣip-pa-a-ti DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ i-ši-mu šim-⸢ti⸣ / [... šal-lat?]-su-nu šá-la-lu ú-mal-lu-u ŠU.II-u-a / [...] nam-ri-ru…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003813.
Attribution
Image: UM 55-21-384 (University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA) — from Nippur (mod. Nuffar) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P257400). 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/Q003813/.
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