Position in chronology
Ashurnasirpal II 113
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), appointee of the god Enlil, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, great king, strong king, king of the world, king of Assyria, son of Adad-nārārī (II), (who was) also appointee of the god Enlil, vice-regent of (the god) Aššur, great king, strong king, king of the world (and) king of Assyria.
Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online — scholar edition (ORACC / MOCCI).
Why it matters
Three-generation royal genealogy anchoring Ashurnasirpal II to Tukultī-Ninurta II and Adad-nārārī II, each styled vice-regent of Aššur — the titulary formula that legitimised Neo-Assyrian kingship as divinely delegated office.
Transliteration
maš-šur-PAP-A GAR dBAD ŠID aš-šur MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur / DUMU mGIŠ.tukul-ti-dMAŠ GAR dBAD ŠID aš-šur MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur DUMU mdIŠKUR-ERIM.TÁḪ / GAR dBAD ŠID aš-šur MAN GAL MAN dan-nu MAN ŠÚ MAN KUR aš-šur-ma
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 Q004567.
Attribution
Image: BM 121132 (British Museum, London, UK) — from Nineveh (mod. Kuyunjik) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P422383). 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/Q004567/.
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The earliest historical document in human history.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.