Position in chronology
Ashurbanipal 158
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 5(1') [... whose] h[ead] I had cut off [...] the defeat of Umm[analdašu (Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III) ...]. (4') (As for) Tammarītu, Paʾ[ê, (and) Ummanaldašu, ... with] your gr[eat] support [...]
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 5 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Names Tammarītu, Paʾê, and Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III together in an Assyrian royal account of the Elamite wars, corroborating the turbulent succession of client and captive kings Ashurbanipal installed after the sack of Susa.
Transliteration
[x] x [...] / ⸢ak⸣-ki-su ⸢SAG⸣.[DU-su ...] / taḫ-te-e mum-⸢man⸣-[al-daš ...] / ⸢m⸣tam-ma-ri-tu mpa-⸢ʾe⸣-[e mum-man-al-daš ...] / [ina] ⸢tu⸣-kul-ti-ki ⸢GAL?⸣-[ti ...]
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Ashurbanipal or a late Sargonid successor, edited by Jamie Novotny & Joshua Jeffers (RINAP 5, 2018–). ORACC text Q007566.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P401292). 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/Q007566/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.