Position in chronology
Sargon II 083
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 2(i' 1) Not sufficiently preserved to allow translation. (ii' 1) Fear of the brilliance of the gods Aššur, Nabû, (and) Marduk, my lords, overwhelmed him (the king of Meluḫḫa) and he put iron fetters on his (Iāmānī’s) hands and feet. (ii´ 5) He then had him brought in bondage to Assyria, into my presence. I reorganized (the administration of) those cities. I settled there people from the lands in the eastern mountains that I had conquered. (ii´ 10) I set a eunuch of mine as provincial governor over them and imposed the yoke of my lordship upon them. (ii' 12) Marduk-apla-iddina (II)…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 2 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Why it matters
Records the king of Meluḫḫa (Kush/Egypt) surrendering the fugitive Iāmānī in chains — the sole cuneiform witness to Assyrian diplomatic reach touching the Nile Valley in the 8th century BCE.
Transliteration
[...] x UB / [...] x-šú-nu / [...]-⸢li?⸣-šú / [...] x x / ⸢pu-ul⸣-ḫi me-⸢lam⸣-me ša ⸢AN⸣.ŠÁR / dAG dAMAR.UTU EN.MEŠ-ia is-ḫu-⸢pu⸣-šú-ma / ŠU.II u GÌR.II bi-re-⸢tú⸣ AN.BAR id-di-šú-ma / a-na qé-reb KUR aš-šur.KI a-di maḫ-ri-ia / ú-še-bi-la-áš-šú ka-meš / URU.MEŠ šá-a-šú-nu a-na eš-šú-ti aṣ-bat1 / UN.MEŠ KUR.⸢KUR⸣ ki-šit-ti qa-ti-ia / ša qé-reb ⸢KUR⸣-i ṣi-it dUTU-ši / i-na lìb-bi ú-še-šib /…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sargon II, edited by Grant Frame (RINAP 2, 2021). ORACC text Q006564.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P452465). source
Translation excerpted from Frame, G. 2021. The Royal Inscriptions of Sargon II, King of Assyria (721–705 BC). RINAP 2. University Park, PA: Eisenbrauns. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/rinap/rinap2/Q006564/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.