Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 1020
Translation · reference
High confidence(This fragment is a duplicate of text no. 60 lines 34´–40´.) (1') [In that (same) year, I bu]ilt [anew Esagil the palace of the gods, Imgur-Enlil, its (Babylon’s) wall, (and) Nēmed-Enlil, its (Babylon’s) outer wall, from their (text: “its”) foundations to their (text: “its”) battlements], and [made (them) much bigger] than b[efore]. (3') [The god Bēl and the goddess Bēltīya, the divine lovers, were created inside the city Aš[šur by their] own [command and were truly born in Eḫursaggalkurkura. The deities Bēlet-Bābi]li, Mandānu, (and) [Ea were made in the city Aššur, place of the creation of gods, and I comp]leted [their] fi[gures. I sumptuously adorned their feature(s) with fifty talents of red ṣāriru-gold], the creation of [Mount] A[rallu ...] ... [...]
Source: Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003392/
Why it matters
Attests Esarhaddon's ideological program of rebuilding Babylon — destroyed by his father Sennacherib — by relocating the divine births of Bēl, Bēltīya, and Ea to Aššur, rewriting Babylonian theology in Assyrian terms.
Transliteration
[...] x x [...]1 / [... eš-šiš ú-še]-⸢piš⸣-ma UGU šá ⸢maḫ⸣-[re-e ...] / [... ṭè-me]-⸢šu?⸣-nu qé-reb URU.aš-⸢šur⸣ [...] / [... dbe-let-KÁ.DINGIR].⸢RA⸣.KI dman-da-nu ⸢d⸣[é-a? ...]2 / [... ú-šak]-li-lu ⸢nab⸣-[ni-su-un ...] / [...] ⸢nab⸣-nit a-⸢ra⸣-[al-li ...] / [...] (traces) [...]
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003392.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P418695). source
Translation excerpted from Leichty, E. 2011. The Royal Inscriptions of Esarhaddon, King of Assyria (680–669 BC). RINAP 4. Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap4/Q003392/.
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