Position in chronology
Esarhaddon 126
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 4(1) For the god Asari (Marduk), his lord: Esarhaddon, king of Assyria, (5) king of the world, king of the four quarters, governor of Babylon, (and) king of Sumer (and) Akkad, (re)constructed Etemenanki for the sake of his life. (1A) Copy of (a text from) Babylon; copied and collated. (2A) Tablet of Šamaš-nāṣir, descendant of the Miller.
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 4 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Attests Esarhaddon's restoration of Etemenanki, the great ziggurat of Babylon, framing reconstruction as personal piety toward Marduk — evidence of an Assyrian king actively courting Babylonian religious legitimacy.
Transliteration
dasar-ri / lugal-a-ni-ir / AN.ŠÁR-ŠEŠ-MU / lugal ma-da aš-šurki-ke₄1 / lugal ki-šár-ra / lugal ub-da límmu-ba / šagina TIN.TIR.KI / lugal ki-in-gi uriki / nam-tìl-bi-šè / é-te-me-en-an-ki / mu-na-dím / GABA.RI TIN.TIR.KI šá-ṭir-ma IGI.KÁR / IM.GÍD.DA mdUTU-PAP A LÚ.a-ri-ri
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Esarhaddon, edited by Erle Leichty (RINAP 4, 2011). ORACC text Q003355.
Attribution
Image: AO 05470 (Louvre Museum, Paris, France) — from Bābili (mod. Babylon) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P450538). 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/Q003355/.
Related tablets
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.