Position in chronology
Ashurnasirpal II 066
Translation — scholar edition
RIAo(1) Ashurnasirpal (II), appointee of the god Enlil, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Tukultī-Ninurta (II), great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Adad-nārārī (II), (who was) also great king, strong king, king of the world (and) king of Assyria; the valiant man who has acted with the support of the deities Aššur, Adad, Ištar, (and) Ninurta, the great gods, his lords, and has made all of the lands bow down at his feet; conqueror of the land Ḫatti, to its full extent, [...] from Tīl-bāri, which is…
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
Why it matters
Attests Ashurnasirpal II's full titulary and three-generation dynastic genealogy back to Adad-nārārī II, anchoring the ideological framework by which Sargonid kings legitimized conquest through divine appointment and hereditary authority.
Transliteration
maš-šur-PAP-A GAR dBAD ⸢ŠID⸣ aš-šur / MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur A GIŠ.tukul-ti-dMAŠ / MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur A md⸢IŠKUR-ERIM⸣.TÁḪ / MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur-ma eṭ-lu qar-du ša ina GIŠ.tukul-ti aš-šur dIŠKUR d⸢INANNA?⸣ dMAŠ DINGIR.MEŠ GAL.MEŠ / EN.MEŠ-šú it-tal-la-ku-ma KUR.KUR DÙ-ši-na <ana> GÌR.II-šu ú-šék-ni-šú / ka-šid KUR.ḫat-ti a-na paṭ…
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 Q004520.
Attribution
Image: BM — (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P366116). source
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/Q004520/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.