Sennacherib 1025

~695 BCE·Neo-Assyrian·Q004081

Translation · reference

High confidence

(1') [...] before [...] ... [...] ... [...] bank ... [...] over the plain [of ...] ... have [... were w]oven over with spider webs. [...] ... [...] ... [...]

Source: Grayson, A.K. & Novotny, J. 2012–2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC). RINAP 3. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/Q004081/

Why it matters

One of Sennacherib's royal inscriptions (RINAP 3, Q004081): too fragmentary to recover its specific campaign or building claim, but preserving the spider-web desolation topos used in Assyrian rhetoric to depict conquered lands.

Transliteration

[...] ma-ḫar x [...] / [...] KI i ŠI [...] / [...] ⸢RU?⸣ ma-kán x [...] / [...] x ma-al-di A x [...] / [...] x ina UGU ta-mir-⸢ti⸣ [...] / [...]-⸢di⸣-ti i-šá-a [...] / [... šá]-⸢ta⸣-at qé-e et-tu-tú [...] / [...] x na ḪAR RA x [...] / [...] x x x [...]

Scholarly note

Royal inscription of Sennacherib, edited by A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny (RINAP 3, 2012–2014). ORACC text Q004081.

Attribution

Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P404626). source
Translation excerpted from Grayson, A.K. & Novotny, J. 2012–2014. The Royal Inscriptions of Sennacherib, King of Assyria (704–681 BC). RINAP 3. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap3/Q004081/.

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