Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 043
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 4(1) [I], Esarha[ddon, str]ong [king], king of the world, king of Assyria, [the one who reveres] the great gods (and) [pa]cifies the mood [of] (5) the gods Anu and Aššur, [be]loved of the god Marduk (and) the goddess Zarpanītu, [who is assid]uous towards the shrines of the god Nabû and the goddess Tašmētu, [the one who (re)con]structed the temple of the god Aššur (and re)built Esagil and Babylon, (10) whom the god Aššur, the father of the gods, called by name to the kingship of Assyria and the governorship of Sumer and Akkad — (12b) The goddess Ištar, [...], gave me [a royal destiny] as [a…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Claims Esarhaddon's mandate from Aššur, Marduk, and Ištar simultaneously — reflecting his calculated effort to legitimise rule over both Assyria and Babylon after his father Sennacherib's destruction of the city.
Transliteration
[a-na]-⸢ku mAN.ŠÁR-PAP⸣-[AŠ] / [MAN dan]-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-⸢šur.KI⸣ / [pa]-⸢liḫ⸣ DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.[MEŠ] / [mu]-⸢šap⸣-ši-iḫ ka-bat-[ti] / ⸢da⸣-nim u AN.⸢ŠÁR⸣ / [na]-⸢ram⸣ dAMAR.UTU dzar-pa-ni-tum / [muš]-⸢te⸣-eʾ-u áš-rat d⸢AG⸣ u dPAPNUN / [ba]-nu-u É AN.ŠÁR / ⸢e-piš⸣ é-sag-íl u KÁ.DINGIR.RA.KI / šá AN.ŠÁR AD DINGIR.⸢DINGIR⸣ a-⸢na⸣ LUGAL-ut ⸢KUR⸣ aš-šur.KI / GÌR.NÍTA-ut KUR EME.GI₇ u URI.⸢KI…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003272.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P450432). 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/Q003272/.
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Related sources
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.