Erišum I 06

• i-sà-re — Verbal form from wašārum / ešērum ('to make straight, restore, put in order'); sometimes rendered 'he rebuilt' or 'he renovated'. Grayson RIMA 1 translates 'renovated'. The exact nuance — fresh construction vs. restoration of an earlier structure — is debated.
• gi-me-er-ti — Akkadian gimertum, 'totality, entirety'. Could be rendered 'completely' (adverbial) or 'in its entirety' (nominal). Both readings are grammatically possible.
• DUMU DINGIR-šum-ma — Transliterated as 'son of Ilum-šumma'; DINGIR here is the logogram for ilum ('god'), giving the personal name Ilum-šumma ('God-has-given-a-name'). Erišum I was son of Ilum-šumma (Ilushuma), the preceding ruler of Aššur.
• ÉNSI — Sumerian logogam rendered iššiakku in Akkadian, conventionally translated 'vice-regent' (of Aššur). The museum label uses the older Sumerological term 'patesi'. 'Governor' is also encountered in older literature.
• É-ti — bīt(i) — 'the temple/house'. The reference is to Ešarra, the temple of Aššur at the city of Aššur, as confirmed by the museum label and parallel inscriptions.

Photo examination (Layer 1): The fragment is a fired-brick inscription mounted on a museum plinth (BM 90809, from Kalat Shergat / ancient Aššur). The inscribed face shows a ruled rectangular panel of approximately six to seven horizontal lines of Old Assyrian cuneiform wedges. The upper-left corner of the brick is missing, causing lacunae at the beginnings of several upper lines. The wedges are shallow and the surface is weathered, making individual sign identification difficult at this resolution; however, the characteristic vertical strokes of ÉNSI (patesi) and some of the horizontal wedge-clusters consistent with the divine name dAššur are recognisable in the lower lines. The overall layout — ruled box, dense sign-groups separated by division marks (the slashes in the transliteration) — accords with known Erišum brick-inscription formats. Cross-check (Layer 2): The transliteration supplied is the standard composite for Erišum I brick inscription ORACC Q005626. My photo reading cannot individually confirm every sign due to resolution and erosion, but nothing visible on the brick contradicts the transliteration; the number of lines and the general sign density are consistent. 'i-sà-re' (išārū / issar) as 'he restored/made straight/put in order' is the main interpretive crux; the rendering 'restored' follows Grayson RIMA 1 A.0.33.6. The museum label's description ('recording the construction of the temple Esharra, for the welfare of the city') broadly matches, though the label does not distinguish 'restore' from 'build'. Period catalogued as Old Babylonian but the reign of Erišum I falls in the Old Assyrian period (c. 1974–1935 BCE by the middle chronology).