A Fragment of an Assyrian King List (BM 128059)

This fragment of the Assyrian King List belongs to a group of texts excavated by R.C. Thompson at Nineveh and catalogued by W.G. Lambert and A.R. Millard in the Second Supplement of the Catalogue of Cuneiform Tablets in the Kuyunjik Collection of the British Museum (1968). A complete edition of the text, with detailed commentary, is provided in Millard 1970.

Millard, Iraq 32 (1970) 174.

As far as it is preserved, this list duplicates the beginning of the Khorsabad and SDAS lists, but with (significant) deviations in a few places. In this list, Ṭūdīya (no. 1) is paired with Adāmu (no. 2), just like the SDAS List, and the pairing is maintained throughout the section, unlike the Khorsabad List which lists Ṭūdīya on his own and the SDAS List which places Imṣu (no. 7), Ḫarṣu (no. 8), and Didānu (no. 9) all on the same line. Moreover, the BM 128059 list contains several variant readings of the names; there are minor orthographic variants for the names of Ṭūdīya (no. 1; here Ṭūdēya) and Didānu (no. 9), but major variants for the names of Imṣu (no. 7; here Aḫiṣu) and Zū-abi (no. 11; here Sumabu). Regarding the major variants, Millard states: "Name 11 as written supports A. Poebel's view that it is identical with Sumu-abu(m), name of the first king of the Amorite Dynasty, against the contention of Kraus (1965) that the name would not be written with initial ZU. It may be surmised that ZU arose from confusion with SU in transcribing a middle-Assyrian copy wherein the signs would be very similar. Nevertheless, the Genealogy edited by J. J. Finkelstein has Zu-um-ma-bu in the apparently parallel line, hinting that the reverse maybe the case. Presence of –ma as restored eases the interpretation of the name as Sumu-abu" (Millard 1970:175-6). Millard also suggests dating BM 128059 close to the time of the Nassouhi List, that is, to the reign of Aššur-dān II (934-912 BC).

Selected Bibliography

Nathan Morello

Nathan Morello, 'A Fragment of an Assyrian King List (BM 128059)', The Royal Inscriptions of Assyria online (RIAo) Project, The RIAo Project, a sub-project of MOCCI, 2023 [http://oracc.museum.upenn.edu/riao/KingLists/AssyrianKingList/FragmentBM128059/]