Position in chronology
Ashurnasirpal II 1003
Translation — scholar edition
RIAo(1') [...], rea[ched its foundation pit, … deco]rated (it) [...]. (3'b) [...] wro[te thereon …] with
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
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Why it matters
One of the composite manuscript witnesses preserving Ashurnasirpal II's building activity, attesting the ritual language Assyrian kings used to legitimize monumental construction through divine sanction.
Transliteration
[... dan-na-su?] ak-[šud?] / [... ú-si]-im / [...] ⸢al⸣-ṭu-ur / [...] x it-ti
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 Q004595.
Attribution
Image: BM 123475 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.earth/artifacts, P464306). 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/Q004595/.
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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The earliest historical document in human history.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.