Position in chronology
Erišum I 10
Translation · reference
High confidence(i 1) [Eri]šum (I), vice-regent of [the god Ašš]ur, [son of Ilu-šūm]a, [vice-regent of the god Ašš]ur, (ii 1) he dedicated [...] to the god Aššur, his lord. I mixed ghee and honey into the mortar of every wall and (then) [la]id one layer of bricks. [The na]me [of the tem]ple is “[Wild] Bull.” (iii 1) [In] the fu[ture], whoever bu[ilds th(at) [temple], a rul[er] who is just like [me], should not [disturb] (my) cl[ay cone] if (that) tem[ple becomes [dilapidated (and)] ol[d. May he return (my)] clay [cone] t[o its place].
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/Q005630/
Translation · AI engine
read from photo[Erišum], vice-regent of Aššur, [son of Ilum-šu]-ma, [vice-regent of A]ššur, [...] ... [...] ... To Aššur, his lord, he prayed, and upon whatever wall he anointed with ghee and honey, and poured out a libation — one [li]bation-offering: the [hou]se (is) a [wi]ld bull; its name [...] Whoever [the house] that [built it] — the prince [whose name] is like [mine] — if the house [repeatedly] grows old (and) weathers, may he not remove the peg; may he return the peg to [its proper place].
7 uncertain terms ↓
- ÉNSI — Rendered 'vice-regent' following standard Assyriological convention for iššiakku; some translate 'city-ruler' or 'governor.' Here it is the Assyrian royal title specifically subordinate to the god Aššur.
- i-na mì-ma i-ga-ri Ì.NUN ù LÀL ú-ší-il₅-ma — 'Upon whatever wall he anointed with ghee and honey' — mīmma igāri is 'any/whatever wall'; ušīl (< šâlum / wašālum) means 'to anoint/smear.' The ritual act of smearing wall foundations with fat and honey is well-attested in building inscriptions but the exact verbal form here is debated.
- ti-ib-kam iš-te₉-en [as]-bu-uk — Literally 'one libation-pouring he poured.' tibkam (< tabākum 'to pour') and asbuk are related forms; the exact syntax and whether this is a relative clause or main clause is uncertain.
- ri-mu-um — 'Wild bull' — standard epithet applied to the house or the dedicant; rimu can mean wild bull (auroch) and is a common royal/divine honorific. Here it apparently designates the house itself as a dedicatory name.
- sí-kà-tám — sikkatum, literally 'peg' or 'nail' — in building inscriptions this is the foundation peg or commemorative nail marking the building. The instruction not to remove it and to restore it to its proper place is a curse/blessing formula protecting the monument.
- [lu-ta-e-er] — Restoration; lutaʾer (D-stem precative of târum) 'may he return/restore.' Fully broken in the text; supplied from parallel exemplars.
- [DUMU DINGIR-šu]-ma — Restoration of the patronymic 'son of Ilum-šuma' (also written Ilu-šumma); brackets indicate the signs are broken and restored from parallel manuscripts of this inscription.
Reasoning ↓
Visual examination of the photo (top image, obverse): the tablet is a roughly lozenge-shaped fragment in moderately good condition for its upper and central registers, though the upper-left corner is heavily eroded or flaked away. Several clusters of cuneiform wedges are discernible across approximately 10–12 legible line zones, with two-column layout visible in the middle section. Signs confirming ÉNSI (double-wedge group), the DA-ŠÙR sequence (Aššur determinative + city name), and what appears to be the IK-RU-UB cluster are recognisable, broadly agreeing with the transliteration's core royal dedication formula. The lower portion of the obverse becomes progressively less distinct; wedge impressions are shallow and smeared. The reverse (bottom image) is largely blank/unscribed clay except for a modern museum accession number '1922.188' inked near the base. No transliteration can be verified for the broken and bracketed passages (lines 1–6, 17–26) from the photo alone. This is an Old Assyrian building inscription of Erišum I (ca. 1974–1935 BCE), attested in multiple exemplars; the formula of anointing a wall with ghee and honey and the wild-bull dedication epithet are well-known from parallel Aššur inscriptions (see Grayson, RIMA 1, A.0.33.1; Veenhof, Old Assyrian Period). The sikkatum ('peg') renewal clause is a standard Mesopotamian building-inscription motif.
Generated by claude-sonnet-4-6 · prompt 2026-05-11/v3-conventions · May 11, 2026 · 2856 in / 1155 out tokens
Why it matters
Erišum I consecrates the Aššur temple 'Wild Bull' by mixing ghee and honey into the mortar — one of the earliest Assyrian royal building inscriptions, and evidence that the ritual deposit of clay cones as dynastic markers was already standard practice c. 1900 BCE.
Transliteration
[i-ri]-⸢šum⸣ / ⸢ÉNSI⸣ / [da]-⸢šùr⸣ / [DUMU DINGIR-šu]-⸢ma⸣ / [ÉNSI da]-⸢šùr⸣ / [...] x / [...] x / a-na da-šùr / be-lí-šu / ik-⸢ru⸣-ub-ma / i-na mì-ma / i-ga-ri / Ì.NUN ù LÀL / ú-ší-il₅-ma / ti-ib-kam / iš-te₉-en / [as]-bu-uk / [É]-tum / [ri]-mu-um / [šu]-um-šu / [...]-⸢na⸣-[...] / ma-⸢ti⸣-[ma] / ša [be-tám] / i-pu-[šu] / ru-ba-[um (šu-um-šu)] / ša ki-ma [ia-ti] / šu-ma É-[tum] / i-ta-[na-aḫ] / i-la-[bi-ir] / sí-⸢kà⸣-[tám] / la ú-[ra-áb] / sí-kà-[tám] / a-⸢na⸣ [iš-ri-ša-ma] / [lu-ta-e-er]
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 Q005630.
Attribution
Image: Ashm 1922-0188 (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK) — Photo via Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (cdli.mpiwg-berlin.mpg.de/artifacts, P384837). 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/Q005630/.
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