Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 006
Written in modern English
The gods granted him mastery of every scribal art and elevated his name and lordship above all other kings who sit on royal thrones. Shrines across Assyria and Akkad whose foundations his father Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, had laid but never finished building — Ashurbanipal completed them all by command of the great gods, his lords. Among these was Eḫursaggalkurkurra, the temple of the god Aššur: he finished it and clad its walls — the inscription breaks off here before the description is complete.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(i 1') th[ey (the gods) allowed my mind to learn all of the scribal arts]. They glorified the men[tion of m]y [name] (and) made my lordship g[reater] t[han (those of all other) king]s who sit on (royal) da[ises]. (i 5') (As for) the sanctua[ries of A]ssyria (and) the land Akkad whose foundation(s) Esarh[addon], king of Assyria, the father who had engendered me, had laid, but whose construction he had not finished, I myself now completed their work by the command of the great gods, my lords. (i 11') I completed Eḫursaggalkurkurra, the temple of (the god) Aššur, my lord, (and) I clad its walls…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Claims Ashurbanipal completed Esarhaddon's unfinished temples — including Eḫursaggalkurkurra at Aššur — framing construction piety as dynastic continuity and divine sanction for his kingship.
Transliteration
[kul-lat ṭup-šar-ru-ti] ⸢ú⸣-[šá-ḫi-zu ka-ra-ši]1 / e-[li LUGAL].⸢MEŠ⸣ a-šib ⸢pa-rak⸣-[ki] / zi-[kir MU]-⸢ia⸣ ú-šar-ri-⸢ḫu⸣ / ú-⸢šar⸣-[bu]-⸢ú⸣ EN-ú-ti / eš-re-⸢e⸣-[ti] ⸢KUR⸣ aš-šur.KI KUR URI.KI / ša mAN.⸢ŠÁR-PAP⸣-[AŠ] LUGAL KUR aš-šur.KI AD ba-ni-ia / tem-me-en-šú-⸢un id⸣-du-ú / la ig-mu-ru ši-pir-šú-un / e-nen-na a-na-ku ina qí-bit DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ EN.MEŠ-ia / ag-mu-ra ši-pir-šun /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q003705.
Attribution
Image: OIM A08001 (Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, USA) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P392225). 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/Q003705/.
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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.