Position in chronology
Sennacherib 007
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 3(1') [...] ... [...] its foundations [...]. (3') [I enlarged] the si[te of the citadel and Nineveh], my [c]apital [city. I broadened their squares and brought light into the alleys and streets, making (them) as bright as day]. (4') [I had a bridge constructed opposite] the Citadel [Gate] with paving ston[es of white limestone for the passage of my lordly chariot]. (5') [I had an inscribed object made and had all the mi]ghty victo[ries that I achieved over all of (my) enemies with the support of (the god) Aššur, the great lord, my lord, and all of my (other) achievements inscribed thereon.…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 3 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Documents Sennacherib's physical remaking of Nineveh — widened streets, a limestone-paved chariot bridge — grounding his self-glorifying inscriptions in datable urban-infrastructure works ca. 695 BCE.
Transliteration
[...] x (x) [...] / [...] ⸢iš⸣-de-e-⸢šu⸣ [...]1 / [ša MURUB₄ URU u NINA.KI URU] ⸢be⸣-lu-ti-ia šu-⸢bat⸣-[su-nu uš-rab-bi re-ba-ti-šú-un ú-šá-an-dil-ma bi-re-e-ti ù su-qa-a-ni uš-par-di-ma ú-nam-mir GIM u₄-me]2 / [i-na mé-eḫ-ret KÁ.GAL] ⸢MURUB₄⸣ URU i-na a-⸢gúr⸣-[ri NA₄.pi-i-li pe-ṣe-e a-na me-ti-iq GIŠ.GIGIR be-lu-ti-ia ú-še-piš ti-tur-ru]3 / [MU.SAR-a ú-še-piš-ma li-i]-tum ù ⸢da⸣-[na-nu ša i-na…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sennacherib, edited by A. Kirk Grayson & Jamie Novotny (RINAP 3, 2012–2014). ORACC text Q003481.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P450331). 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/Q003481/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.