Position in chronology
Šamši-Adad V 01
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) To the god Ninurta, the strong lord, the majestic (and) exalted one, the noble one, the warrior of the gods, the one who holds the bond of heaven and netherworld, the commander of all, (i 5) the noble one among the Igīgū gods, the hero, the splendid one whose strength cannot be matched, the foremost one among the Anunnakū gods, the brave one of the gods, the magnificent one whose might is unrivalled, the god Utulu, (i 10) the exalted lord, the rider of the Deluge, the one who like the god Šamaš — the light of the gods — watches (all four) quarters (of the world), the hero of the gods…
Source: 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/Q004738/
Why it matters
Transliteration
[a]-na dnin-urta EN ga-áš-ri / [šá]-⸢ga⸣-pi-ri šur-bi-i e-tel-li / ⸢UR⸣.SAG DINGIR.MEŠ mu-kil mar-kas AN-e / ⸢u⸣ KI-te mu-ma-ʾe-er gim-ri / mut-tal-li dí-gì-gì ma-am-li / šit-ra-ḫi ša la im-ma-ḫa-ru / dan-nu-su SAG.KAL da-nun-na-ki / al-lál-li DINGIR.MEŠ šu-pi-i / šá là SÁ kaš-ka-šu dut-u₁₈-lu / EN MAḪ ra-kib a-bu-bi / šá GIM dUTU-ši nu-úr DINGIR.MEŠ / i-bar-ru-u kib-ra-a-ti ur-šá-an-ni /…
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 Q004738.
Attribution
Image: Based on A. Kirk Grayson, Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC II (858-745 BC) (RIMA 3), Toronto, 1996. Adapted by Jamie Novotny (2016) and lemmatized and updated by Nathan Morello (2016) 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/Q004738/..
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/Q004738/.
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.