Position in chronology
Sargon II 114
Translation — scholar edition
RINAP 2(1') [Together with his allies (and) his battle troops], he pitc[hed] his [roy]al [tent in a bend of the river (lit.: “between rivers”) like a cran]e [and assembled his military camp]. (2') [At the command of the gods Aššur, Nabû, (and) Marduk, I had a causeway constructed (lit.: “trodden down”) across his canals and I caught him, toge]ther with [his] fig[hting men, like a flying eagle in a net. I spr]ead out l[ike m]alt (spread for drying) [the corpses of his vanguard and of the Aḫlamû, the people of the steppe who go at] his [side], an[d I filled the surroundings of his city (with them).…
Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period, volume 2 — scholar edition (ORACC).
Transliteration
[... ki-ma ku-mé]-⸢e.MUŠEN⸣ [za-ra-tú] ⸢LUGAL?⸣-ti-šú iš-⸢kun⸣-[ma ...] / [... šá-a-šú ga]-⸢du⸣ LÚ.mun-[daḫ-ṣe-šu ...] / [... i-de-e]-šu ⸢ki⸣-[ma] ⸢ŠE.MUNU₆⸣ [áš]-ṭe-e-⸢ma⸣ [...] / [... URU].šá-at-SUM.NA URU.za-ra-a-te URU.raq-qa-tum URU.⸢e⸣-[ku-uš-šú ...] / [... a-di] ⸢URU⸣.MEŠ ša li-me-⸢ti⸣-šú-un ti-la-niš ⸢ú⸣-[še-me ...] / [... ZIMBIR].⸢KI⸣ NIBRU.KI ⸢KÁ⸣.[DINGIR].⸢RA⸣.KI bár-sipa.KI ša [i-na…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of Sargon II, edited by Grant Frame (RINAP 2, 2021). ORACC text Q006595.
Attribution
Image: Created by Grant Frame and the Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period (RINAP) Project, 2019. Adapted for RINAP Online by Joshua Jeffers and Jamie Novotny and lemmatized by Giulia Lentini, Nathan Morello, and Jamie Novotny, 2019, for the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation-funded OIMEA Project at the Historisches Seminar - Abteilung Alte Geschichte of Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München. The annotated edition is released under the Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike license 3.0..
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/Q006595/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.