Position in chronology
Adad-nerari III 2018 add
Written in modern English
The tablet's opening lines are damaged and begin mid-thought, identifying the god Salmānu as a great lord who resides in the city Dūr-Katlimmu, his holy and beloved abode. A governor named Pālil-ēreš, who held authority over the land of Rasappa, the city Nēmed-Ištar, and the city Apku, had a golden sword made and commissioned a statue of Adad-nārārī III, king of Assyria, which he then presented to the god Salmānu. The purpose of these gifts was to secure Salmānu's protection of Adad-nārārī's priestly throne, to place in the king's hands the scepter that shepherds the people, and to ensure the well-being of his descendants, the people of Assyria, and Assyria itself. The inscription breaks off after this point.
A modern paraphrase of the literal translation — same content, contemporary voice.
Translation — scholar edition
RIAo(1') who resides in the ciy Dūr-kat[limmu, the] holy [shrine], his beloved abode, the great lord, his lord: (3') Pālil-ēreš, [the gover]nor of the land R[asappa], the city [Nēmed-Ištar, (and) the city Apk]u, had a gol[den sw]ord made and made and presented an image of Adad-nārārī (III), king of Assyria, his lord, to the god Salmānu (Text: “Adad-nārārī, king of Assyria”), his lord, who protects the throne of his priesthood, to give into his hands the scepter that shepherds the people, for the well-being of his seed, the well-being of the people of Assyria and the well-being of Assyria, to…
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
Transliteration
a-šib URU.⸢BÀD-duk⸣-[1.LIM ki-iṣ-ṣi] / KÙ šu-bat na-ra-me-šú EN GAL EN-šú / md⸢IGI.DU-KAM⸣ [GAR].KUR KUR.⸢ra⸣-[ṣa-pi] / ⸢URU⸣.[ne-med-d15 URU.ap]-⸢ku⸣ / nam-ṣa-⸢ru⸣ [KÙ].⸢GI⸣ ú-še-piš-ma / ALAM m10-ERIM.TÁḪ MAN KUR aš-šur EN-šú / ana d10! <<m10-ERIM.TÁḪ MAN KUR aš-šur>> EN-šú / PAP-ir GIŠ.AŠ.TE SANGA-ti-šú / GIŠ.GIDRU mur-te-ʾa-at / UN.MEŠ šu-ut-mu-ḫi ŠU.II-šú / SILIM NUMUN-šú <<SI>> SILIM UN KUR…
Scholarly note
Royal inscription of an Assyrian king, published in the Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online project (RIAo). Translation reproduced from the ORACC edition. ORACC text Q009276.
Attribution
Image: Based on K. Radner, "The Stele of Adad-nērāri III and Nergal-ēreš from Dūr-Katlimmu (Tell Šaiḫ Ḥamad)," AoF 39 (2012) pp. 265-277. Adapted and lemmatized by Nathan Morello (2020) for the Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), a corpus-building initiative funded by LMU Munich and the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation (through the establishment of the Alexander von Humboldt Chair for Ancient History of the Near and Middle East) and based 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. Please cite this page as http://oracc.org/riao/Q004797/..
Translation excerpted from Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo), Munich Open-access Cuneiform Corpus Initiative (MOCCI), Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München; in association with the RINAP Project, University of Pennsylvania. https://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/Q009276/.
Related tablets
Related sources
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.
The oldest surviving law code in human history. The principle that the state — not the wronged family — defines and enforces justice begins here.
Not the first law code, but the most complete and the most famous. Inscribed on a black diorite stele over two meters tall, displayed in a public place — law made visible, law made monumental.