Read Chronology Themes Tablets Engine About

Menu

Read
Chronology
Themes
Tablets
Engine
About

Sumerian · Book

Reading the tablets…

A curated narrative reconstruction of humanity's first great civilization, sourced from the tablets themselves. Open scholarship, beautifully accessible.

The site

About the project The engine Dossiers FAQ Methodology Sources & licensing Provenance & ethics Contact & support

Legal

Privacy policy Terms of use llms.txt Sitemap

Independent scholarship · No academic affiliation · No institutional funding · Tablet imagery attributed per item via CDLI, ETCSL, ORACC, Wikimedia, and public museum collections.

Home
All tablets

The corpus

All tablets.

Every tablet in the corpus — sortable by date, title or period; filterable by theme and period. Use the controls below or change the URL parameters directly.

Search

Sort

Oldest first Newest first Title (A–Z)By period

Theme

Religion & Myth Law Economy Astronomy & Mathematics Daily Life Writing & Literature

Period

Ubaid Uruk Period Early Dynastic Akkadian Empire Ur III · Neo-Sumerian Old Babylonian Old Assyrian Middle Babylonian Middle Assyrian Neo-Assyrian Neo-Babylonian Achaemenid Persian

Source

Editorial Sumerian literature Sumerian royal Assyrian royal Assyrian archives

74,900 of 102,257 tablets · 4 filters activeClear filters

70001–70050 of 74900

Page 1401 / 1498

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 096

Lists the gods, priests, royal statues, and treasures looted from Susa, Madaktu, and Ḫurādi after Ashurbanipal's sack of Elam — the primary Assyrian record of that systematic cultural decapitation of a rival civilization.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-Assyrian

RINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 097

Describes the ritual reconstruction of a temple — mortar mixed with beer and wine, workers singing — preserving the ceremonial language Sargonid kings used to legitimise sacred building projects.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 098

Records Ashurbanipal's ceremonial return of Marduk and the Babylonian gods to Esagila after their Assyrian exile — a pivotal act of religious diplomacy meant to legitimise Assyrian rule over Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 099

Quantifies the precious materials — fifty talents of zaḫalû-silver and thirty-four talents of gold — lavished on Marduk's throne-dais, giving a rare cost-accounting of Assyrian royal temple patronage in Babylon.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 100

Places an Assyrian campaign against the district of Ḫunnir and destruction of Bašimu on the Hidalian border, adding localized geographic and military detail to the fragmentary record of Ashurbanipal's eastern operations.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 101

Claims Ashurbanipal salted sixty leagues of Elamite territory — one of the few royal inscriptions quantifying the deliberate ecological devastation used to permanently disable a conquered region.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianOur engine

SAA 14 107. A Court Decision on Behalf of Aššur-šallim (*638-IV) (ADD 0163)

Lawsuit of Aššur-šallim against Ṣalmu-aḫḫē concerning Šulmu-ēreš, his (Aššur-šallim's) slave, which they argued — (this case) was brought before Šēp-šarri, the sartinnu (chief judge). The sartinnu imposed (a penalty of) 1 1/2 minas of silver. Ṣalmu-aḫḫē gave 1 mina of silver to Aššur-šallim. Whoever among them breaches the peace (settlement) between them shall pay 10 minas of silver to Aššur (and) Šamaš, lord(s) of his lawsuit — to Aššur, the lord of his lawsuit. Month of Tammuz (IV), eponym year of Aššur-šuma-uṣur (?). Witness Libbūsu. Witness Nabû-aḫu-aḫu. Witness Išdi-Nabû (or) La-qēpu…

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 102

Documents Ashurbanipal's campaign against Ḫidalu — including the removal of its gods to Assyria — a concrete instance of the deliberate religious humiliation used to subordinate a conquered people.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 103

Records Ashurbanipal's systematic devastation of Elam — gods deported, sixty leagues salted — documenting the Assyrian theology of conquest in which plundering enemy cult statues physically broke divine protection.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 104

Preserves the standard Assyrian royal prayer formula — longevity, dynastic continuity, victory over enemies — attesting the ideological template Sargonid kings imposed on monumental self-presentation in the mid-seventh century BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 105

Preserves Ashurbanipal's framing of his brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's revolt as sacrilege — specifically the theft of cult centers the king had personally restored — casting civil war as divine betrayal rather than political rebellion.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 106

Records Tammarītu of Elam's mocking words about the beheading of Teumman and Ummanigaš's submission — then Aššur's divine retribution, linking Assyrian war propaganda directly to theological justification for punishing vassal insolence.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 107

Tammarītu's groveling submission at Nineveh — crawling naked, kissing royal feet, sweeping the ground with his beard — documents the ritual humiliation Assyria imposed on deposed Elamite claimants after the civil war of the 650s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 108

Records Ištar of Arbela appearing in a dream to reassure Assyrian troops afraid to ford the Idide River — direct evidence of divine-oracle legitimation woven into Ashurbanipal's Elamite campaign narratives.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 109

Places the Arab king Uaiteʾ of Sumuʾil in a dog collar at the city gate — one of the few royal inscriptions to specify this particular humiliation for a defeated vassal who broke his oath to Assyria.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 110

Records Urarṭian king Sarduri III's submission of audience gifts and renewed diplomatic ties to Ashurbanipal — rare cuneiform evidence of the northern kingdom's shift from rival to tributary in the late 7th century BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 111

A fragmentary Sargonid royal inscription invoking the Assyrian state pantheon — Šarrat-Kidmuri, Ištar of Arbela, Ninurta, Nergal, and Nusku — preserving partial evidence of the ritual and ceremonial language binding kingship to divine favour.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 112

Preserves Ashurbanipal's ultimatum to the Elamite king Indabibi — threatening Susa, Madaktu, and Ḫidalu and invoking the fate of Teumman — documenting Assyrian coercive diplomacy in the final years of Elamite independence.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 113

Invokes the full Assyrian-Babylonian pantheon — Aššur to Nabû — in a single royal inscription, attesting the late Sargonid formula for anchoring royal authority in the consent of every major deity.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 114

Traces Ashurbanipal's conquests 'from the Upper Sea to the Lower Sea,' encoding the Assyrian imperial ideology of universal kingship through its titulary and campaign narrative.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 115

Records Ashurbanipal's completion and gold-cladding of Eḫursaggalkurkurra, Aššur's chief temple, linking royal construction piety to divinely ordained kingship in the Sargonid tradition.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 116

Records Ashurbanipal's restoration of Marduk's cult furniture — bed, canopy, and chariot — in Babylon, anchoring the Assyrian king's claim to legitimate rule over the south through priestly service to the Babylonian god.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 117

Records Ashurbanipal's first campaign against the Kushite pharaoh Taharqa, framing the reconquest of Memphis as divine mandate — a rare Assyrian first-person account of the struggle for Egypt that cross-checks both biblical and Egyptian sources.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 118

Names Necho, Šarru-lū-dāri, and Pa-qruru as Assyrian-installed client kings in Egypt, giving the Assyrian court's own account of the vassal network Esarhaddon built along the Nile delta.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 119

Attests Ashurbanipal's reinstatement of Egyptian vassals who had fled Taharqa's advance, then pivots to the Elamite war against Urtaku — threading two simultaneous imperial crises in one royal account.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 120

A fragmentary Sargonid royal inscription invoking Ištar's authority over the king's enemies — one of many RINAP 5 witnesses preserving the theological language that legitimised Neo-Assyrian military campaigns.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRIAo

Ashurbanipal 121

Names Elamite dynasts Ḫumban-ḫaltaš II and Teumman alongside the Kushite pharaoh Tanutamon, placing Assyria's simultaneous western and eastern military pressures within a single royal record.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 122

Chronicles Assyria's defeat of the Nubian pharaoh Tanutamun and the installation of a local client-king at Athribis — the primary cuneiform record of Assyrian military dominance over Egypt in the 660s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 123

Narrates Ashurbanipal's sack of Thebes (663 BCE) — the deepest Egyptian penetration by an Assyrian army — and catalogues the city's looted treasures, corroborating the biblical lament in Nahum 3:8–10.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 124

Records Ashurbanipal's naval blockade of Tyre — cutting off food and water to the island city — one of the few cuneiform accounts of Assyrian siege warfare at sea.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 125

A Lydian ruler dreams that Ashur commands him to grasp Ashurbanipal's feet — and then defeats the Cimmerians: one of the clearest surviving texts linking Assyrian royal ideology to a foreign vassal's military success.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 126

Narrates Ashurbanipal's defeat of the Elamite king Teumman at the Ulai River and his installation of client rulers in Elam — direct royal testimony to the Assyrian policy of dynastic partition as an instrument of imperial control.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 127

Names Undasu, son of the Elamite king Teumman, and Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's messengers in a battle context, adding onomastic and diplomatic detail to the Assyro-Elamite wars of the 650s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 128

Records Ashurbanipal's claim to have defeated Teumman of Elam and seized Bīt-Imbî, situating this Assyrian-Elamite war within the king's own ideological framing of divinely sanctioned conquest.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 129

Records Assyria's deposition of the Qedarite king Uaiteʾ and the installation of Abī-Yateʾ in his place — direct evidence of Sargonid intervention in Arab dynastic succession during the wars tied to Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's rebellion.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 131

Attests Aššurbanipal invoking Aššur and Ištar to legitimize the defection of eighty-five named nobles — a concrete glimpse of how Sargonid kings framed elite realignment as divine favor.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 132

Records Tammarītu's flight to the Assyrian court after his own servant Indabibi seized the Elamite throne — direct Assyrian testimony to the dynastic collapse that dismembered Elam in the 650s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 133

Records Elamite court factions killing Indabibi and enthroning Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III — framed as Assyrian divine terror, this is a key source for the political collapse of Elam in the 650s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 134

Records Ashurbanipal's account of his brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's death in the flames of Babylon (648 BCE) and the seizure of his royal regalia — one of the few first-person Assyrian narratives of the brutal end to the great fraternal civil war.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 135

Names four rival Elamite claimants — Ummanigaš, Ummanappa, Tammarītu, and Kudurru — and records Tammarītu's barefoot prostration before Ashurbanipal, giving the most detailed Assyrian account of the dynastic chaos that fractured Elam after Teumman's death.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 136

Records Ashurbanipal's sack of Bīt-Imbî and the mutilation of its defenders — visceral first-person evidence of the psychological terror tactics underpinning Assyrian imperial expansion into Elam.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 137

Attests Ashurbanipal's account of crushing his brother Šamaš-šuma-ukīn's rebellion (652–648 BCE) and defeating the Elamite king Ummanalداšu — Assyrian royal propaganda cast as divine sanction for fratricidal civil war.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 138

Narrates Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III's flight across a river from Assyrian forces — fragmentary but direct Assyrian testimony to the campaign that effectively ended Elamite royal resistance by the 640s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 139

Attests Ashurbanipal's campaign against Ḫumban-haltaš III of Elam — the routed king's flight 'naked' into the mountains marking one of Assyria's deepest penetrations into Elamite territory before Susa's sack.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 140

Fragmentary Sargonid royal inscription recording spoils — statues, wagons, horses, mules — taken from Susa, likely part of Ashurbanipal's 647 BCE sack of the Elamite capital.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 141

Records Nanāya's 1,535-year 'exile' from Babylonia and her divine nomination of Ashurbanipal as restorer of her cult — linking Sargonid royal legitimacy directly to the goddess's prophetic dreams and ecstatic oracles.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 142

Records Elamite prince Paʾê fleeing to Ashurbanipal and 'grasping the feet' of the king — the submission formula in action during the Assyrian–Elamite power struggle of the 650s BCE.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 143

Records Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III's flight into exile after his own land rebelled — Ashurbanipal's account of Elam's internal collapse following Assyrian devastation of Madaktu.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 144

Attests Aššurbanipal's theology of divine warrant for war — Aššur and Ištar personally guaranteeing victory — in the context of his Elamite campaigns, where a fleeing enemy is seized 'like a falcon.'

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

~655 BCE·Neo-AssyrianRINAP 5

Ashurbanipal 145

Names three successive Elamite kings — Tammarītu, Paʾê, and Ḫumban-ḫaltaš III — alongside the Arab king Uaiteʾ as captives yoked to Ashurbanipal's chariot, anchoring the chronology of Elam's final collapse under Assyrian pressure.

Writing & Literature·Religion & Myth

1…1400 1401 1402…1498